Watermark video: settings and best results

What does Watermark video do?

Watermark video puts your logo or your name on every frame of a batch of videos, on your own computer. In the app the tool is called Watermark Video. Use it to brand clips you post online, mark preview cuts you send to clients, or add a copyright line to your footage.

You can place one mark, for example in a corner, or repeat it across the whole frame. The settings panel shows a live preview over your clip, and the Watermark studio lets you check each video and give one its own mark. Each marked video is saved as an MP4.

01Step 1: Open Watermark Video and add your videos

Click Tools in the sidebar, open the Video tab and click Watermark Video in the Enhance section. You can also type "watermark" in the search box at the top.

Drop your videos on the queue, or click it to pick files. MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI and other common video files work. Click a video in the queue to show it in the preview at the top of the settings panel.

1234567

1. 1Preview
2. 2Import logo…
3. 3Position
4. 4Size
5. 5Opacity
6. 6Place per clip in the Studio
7. 7Run watermark

04Step 4: Check each video in the Watermark studio

Click Place per clip in the Studio, or click Adjust on a video in the queue. The Watermark studio plays the video large with the mark on top.

• Use the arrows at the top, the left and right arrow keys, or the thumbnails at the bottom to move between videos. The play button plays and pauses it.
• With Single, click or drag on the video to move the mark, for example off a face or a product.
• While Override this file is off, your changes apply to every video that does not have its own watermark. Turn it on to give the video you are looking at its own watermark. It gets a ★, and Adjust shows a ★ in the queue. Reset to batch puts it back on the shared settings.

Click Done, or press Esc, to go back.

12345

1. 12 / 3
2. 2Drag on the video to place
3. 3Override this file
4. 4Legibility box
5. 5Done

05Step 5: Run, then check the result

Check where the files will go: Default output folder saves them in your workspace’s output folder, in a watermark folder with a subfolder for today’s date, such as 10-15. Click Change to pick another folder for this run. Then click Run watermark.

Each marked video shows Done. Click View to check a result, and Open folder to go to the copies. They keep their original names and end in .mp4. See See and compare your results and Where your files are saved.

1234

1. 1Done
2. 2View
3. 3Saved to
4. 4Open folder

Every setting, and when to change it

The panel and the Watermark studio show the same settings. The logo list appears for Logo, the text settings for Text, Position for Single and Tile spacing for Tiled.

Override this file

In the Watermark studio only. On gives the video you are looking at its own watermark, apart from the rest.

• RangeOff, On
• DefaultOff

Watermark

Whether the mark is your logo or words.

• RangeLogo, Text
• DefaultLogo

Logo

The logo to use. Import logo… adds one. Logos are kept for next time and shared with Watermark Image and Stamp.

• DefaultThe first logo in your list, if any

Text

The words of the mark. Type your own name or studio.

• Default© Hangar

Colour

The color of the text. A logo keeps its own colors.

• RangeAny color
• DefaultWhite

Legibility box

Puts a soft dark box behind the text so it reads over any footage.

• DefaultOn

Single or Tiled

One mark, or the mark repeated in rows across the whole frame.

• RangeSingle, Tiled
• DefaultSingle

Position

Where a single mark sits. It always stays fully inside the frame.

• Range9 points, or anywhere by dragging
• DefaultBottom right

Size

A logo is measured against the longest side of the video; text against its height.

• RangeLogo 2% to 100%, text 1% to 30%
• DefaultLogo 15%, text 5%

Opacity

How see-through the mark is.

• Range0% to 100%
• Default85%

Rotation

Tilts the mark. With Tiled, it tilts the whole pattern.

• Range-180° to 180°
• Default0°

Tile spacing

With Tiled, the gap between copies, compared with the size of the mark.

• Range0.0× to 4.0×
• Default0.4×

How do I make a good watermark?

• For a brand mark on social clips, use a logo with Single in a bottom corner, Size 10% to 20% and Opacity 70% to 85%.
• For preview cuts you send to clients, use Tiled with Opacity about 30% and Rotation about -30°. The video stays easy to judge, and there is no clean corner to crop.
• Keep Legibility box on for white text over moving footage. Without it, white text disappears on skies and bright walls.
• Mind the platform buttons. Apps that show your video often put their own buttons and captions along the right edge and the bottom. Check the corner you pick on a phone before you post.
• Check light and dark clips in the Watermark studio. If the mark is lost on one clip, give that clip its own position or color with Override this file.

Why does a watermark look wrong?

• The text says "© Hangar". That is the starting text. Type your own in the text box, then run again.
• The mark is not in the corner I picked. A large mark is pushed inward so it stays fully inside the frame. Lower Size to bring it closer to the corner.
• The logo has a box around it. The logo file has no transparent background. Import a PNG or SVG version.
• One video has a different mark. It has its own settings. Open it in the Watermark studio and click Reset to batch.
• Every video failed with a message about choosing a logo. Logo is picked but no logo is selected. Import a logo, or switch to Text.
• A video failed because the selected logo is no longer available. The logo was removed from the list, here or in another tool. Import it again and pick it.
• A video failed asking you to enter watermark text. The text box is empty. Type your text, or switch to Logo.

For other errors, see A file failed: what to check.

Limits

• The mark is on every frame of the video. It cannot start or stop partway through.
• The result is always an MP4. The picture is saved again at high quality; the sound is kept.
• Subtitle tracks inside the original file are not carried over to the copy.
• Text uses one typeface, with no bold or font choice.
• A watermark discourages reuse but is not a lock. It is part of the picture, and a determined person with video editing skills could remove or crop it.
• For photos, use Watermark. For PDFs, use Stamp.
• Everything runs on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.

Use Watermark video in a chain

Watermark video is available as a step called Watermark in chains, under the Video steps, with the same settings as the tool. The step has no preview and no Studio, so place a single mark with the nine points, and try your settings on a few videos in the tool first. Every video in a chain gets the same watermark.

A common chain resizes videos for social media, adds the watermark and then compresses them. Put Watermark after Resize, so the mark is drawn on the final video and stays sharp. A chain also remembers your settings; see Run a chain on many files.