Add a Watermark to Video Online, Free Logo and Text Marks

To add a watermark to a video, upload your clip to EchoWave, add a text or logo watermark, drag it into a corner and lower the opacity, then export. The mark is baked into the file so it travels with the video wherever it is shared. Everything runs in your browser, free, with no signup.

What a video watermark is

A watermark is a small logo, text mark or graphic layered over your footage to show who owns it. It usually sits in a corner of the frame and stays there for the whole clip. Most marks are kept semi-transparent so viewers can still see the video underneath while the brand stays visible.

In EchoWave the watermark is burned into the exported file. That matters: once it is rendered into the video, the mark travels with the clip even when it is downloaded, re-uploaded or reposted on another platform. A separate overlay or platform badge can be stripped, but a baked-in watermark cannot be removed without re-editing the video.

How adding a watermark works in EchoWave

EchoWave is a browser-based editor, so there is no software to install and your video is processed without you needing an account to start. You upload a clip, add your mark on a layer above it, and the rendering step composites everything into a single new video file.

You have full control over the watermark. Drag it anywhere on the canvas, scale it up or down by the corner handles, and set the opacity so it reads clearly without covering the action. You can use a text mark, an uploaded logo, or both at once, and each layer is adjusted independently. Because the watermark sits on its own layer, you can also trim how long it appears, though for ownership you will usually want it on screen for the full duration.

Text watermark vs logo watermark

A text watermark is a line of type: your name, channel handle or website, set semi-transparent over the footage. It is the fastest option, needs no image file, and is ideal when you just want to mark ownership quickly. Pick a clean font, add a subtle drop shadow or outline if your footage is busy, and keep it small.

A logo watermark uses your brand mark, normally a PNG with a transparent background so only the logo shows and not a white box around it. It is the stronger choice for branding because viewers recognise a logo instantly. If you do not have a transparent file yet, a simple wordmark in text works almost as well. With EchoWave you can layer a logo and a line of text together, for example a logo bottom-right and a website handle bottom-left.

Where to place a watermark and what opacity to use

The safest place for a watermark is a top or bottom corner, where it marks ownership without covering faces, captions or the main action. The bottom-right corner is the most common because that is where viewers expect branding and where most platform interface elements avoid sitting. Keep the mark inside the title-safe area, roughly the central 90 percent of the frame, so it is not clipped on different screens.

For opacity, aim for a semi-transparent look: visible enough to notice, light enough that it does not distract. Around 35 to 60 percent works for most footage. If you are mainly protecting content from theft, a larger or more central mark is harder to crop out; if branding is the goal, a smaller corner mark is cleaner. Preview on a phone as well as a laptop, since a mark that looks subtle on desktop can disappear on a small screen.

Supported formats and aspect ratios

Upload the common containers you already work with: MP4 (H.264 or H.265), MOV, WebM, MKV and AVI all import, and you can export a standard MP4 that plays everywhere. PNG is the best format for a logo because it supports transparency; JPG works too but will carry a solid background.

Watermark in whatever aspect ratio your platform needs. Use 9:16 for vertical clips on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, 1:1 square for feed posts, and 16:9 for standard YouTube and landscape video. Because you position the mark on the actual canvas, you can move it to suit each ratio rather than guessing where it will land. If your browser cannot read an unusual codec for preview, the upload and server-side render still proceed, so awkward source files are not a dead end.

Add a watermark to a YouTube video

There are two ways to watermark a YouTube video, and they do different things. YouTube Studio has a branding watermark setting (Customisation, then Branding) that overlays a small image in the corner of your videos during playback on YouTube only. It is good for a subscribe prompt but it does not exist on the downloaded file and is gone the moment the clip is reposted elsewhere.

The more durable method is to burn the watermark into the file before you upload it. Follow the steps above in EchoWave, export your watermarked video, then upload that finished file to YouTube. The mark is now part of the footage, so it stays put on Shorts, on TikTok, on Instagram and anywhere the clip ends up. This is also how creators like the Slow Mo Guys keep their branding attached to clips that get reposted across social media.

When to use this tool, and quality notes

Reach for a watermark when you are publishing footage you want credited to you: tutorials, product demos, stock-style B-roll, client previews, course videos and social clips that tend to get reposted. For client review copies, a slightly heavier mark across the frame discourages anyone using the cut before it is paid for.

EchoWave re-encodes the video once to bake the mark in, so use a reasonable export quality to avoid stacking compression on already-compressed source files. The watermark itself is lossless on its own layer; only the final render is encoded. For privacy, the editing happens in your browser session rather than your files being kept, which suits sensitive or unreleased footage. EchoWave is free to use: exports from the full editor carry a small EchoWave mark on the free plan, removable on a paid plan, while the dedicated quick tools such as crop, trim and compress export with no added mark.