Stamp a text watermark on a video and pick its corner

A watermark tells viewers whose video they are watching, even after it is reposted. The Add watermark card in Quick tools stamps a line of text over a whole video and gives you back the finished file, with no project to set up by hand.

What the watermark looks like

The tool places your text as white lettering with a shadow at 75 percent opacity. It stays on screen from the first frame to the last. There is no backing plate behind it, so the text sits directly on the picture.

You control two things: the words and where they sit.

Add the watermark

1. Open the Projects page and find the Quick tools row.
2. Click Add watermark.
3. Drop a video onto the dashed box, or press Choose a file.
4. Type your line in Watermark text. The field shows @yourhandle as a hint and takes up to 60 characters.
5. Under Position, choose one of the five spots described below.
6. Press Run. The button stays disabled until you have a file and some text.
7. Wait for Uploading and Rendering to finish. When the dialog says "Done", your download should have started.

The five positions

• Bottom right is selected when the dialog opens.
• Bottom left
• Top right
• Top left
• Center

The four corner choices sit close to their corners, inset from the edge. Center puts the text in the middle of the frame, which makes it hard to crop out and also the most intrusive choice.

Choose a spot that stays clear

Look at your footage before you pick. Place the watermark where little happens in your shot. If the subject sits low in the frame, use a top corner. If a speaker's face sits on the left, put the text on the right.

Think about what else sits near the edges of a finished video. Captions run along the lower part of the frame in many styles, and on a vertical video the platform draws its own buttons over the edges. A top corner is often the quietest place. Keep the line short so it reads at a glance.

Fine-tune it and keep your original

Each run leaves its project in your Projects list. The watermark in that project is a title laid across the clip, so you can open the project, select the title, and change its words in the right panel's Text tab. Then export from there.

For a different look, such as another font or size, open the project and edit the title like any other title. The Quick tools dialog itself only offers the text and the position.

The watermark is burned into the downloaded file, so it stays on in that copy. Keep your original video, and use the watermarked copy only for what you share.

Make your first watermark

Run Add watermark in DepCut on a short clip, with your handle in the bottom right.