Watermark any file—right from Dropbox
Sharing digital files has never been easier—making sure your work isn’t used without your permission is a must. It’s a snap to add a logo or text watermark to images and PDFs with Dropbox’s watermarking.
Here are a few ways to use a watermark
Maintain privacy, confidentiality, and control of your brand
Graphic design: Files, company logos, layouts, portfolio work
It’s all too easy to copy valuable creative ideas and visual files when they’re digital. Adding a watermark helps protect your work from potential theft.
Legal materials: Contracts, financial records, documents requiring eSignature
Watermark sensitive materials to help keep confidential files from being shared without consent.
Personal images: Wedding photos, modeling headshots
Watermarking helps protect personal or professional photos you don’t want to be shared all over the internet.
Creating custom watermarks is easy with personalization
You can create a custom watermark to your unique specifications—without needing a dedicated watermark app. Just sign in to your Dropbox account from your desktop or laptop, click on an image, and you’ll find all the tools you need right there. From there, you can:
- Use your own logo - Personalize your watermark using your own brand or select the default stamp
- Change the position and rotation - Reposition and rotate the watermark to your liking
- Edit the transparency and size - Create fully or semi-transparent watermarks by adjusting the opacity and enlarging or reducing its size
Watermarks are simple to apply—and remove
Saving your original image or PDF with the added watermarked version as a copy is the best way to watermark a file because you always have the original if you need it. And with Dropbox, if you accidentally overwrite your original photo or file, you can just use version history to restore it back.
It’s simple for you to remove a visual watermark but not so easy for your client or customer. Whether you send someone an overwritten original or a copy, your watermarked file remains intact. In other words, no one but you can remove the watermark.
Dropbox adds another layer of file protection
Just by storing your watermarked images and PDFs in your Dropbox folder, you can relax knowing that all your files are securely backed up, 24/7.
Business administrators also have the option to turn on or off the watermarking feature for their company files. They can see who made changes to specific documents and what those changes were. This gives businesses greater oversight, control, and security of their file.
Frequently asked questions
A watermark is a translucent word or logo that is superimposed over an image. You should watermark photos, PDFs, and other files to make clear that your work belongs to you, and to keep copies of your work from ending up in the wrong hands.
With Dropbox, you can add a watermark to these types of files: JPEG, PNG, BMP, PDF.
Ideally, an image watermark should be big enough to cover enough of the photo so that it isn’t easily cropped out by an unscrupulous person. To further protect your property, you can cover the entire image or file with a watermark. You can also use the tile feature that places the watermark in a repeating pattern over the image or file to help mitigate the risk of unauthorized users cropping out the watermark.
While you can put a watermark on the original photo, we don’t advise it. While you can always use version history to restore it, it’s a good idea to keep the original on hand and make another copy using the watermark.
Watermarking is currently available as part of Dropbox Professional, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise.
