Image
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Image Watermark

Description

Enhance your WordPress site’s image security and branding. Image Watermark allows you to apply image or text overlays to new uploads and bulk process existing Media Library images with ease.

Key Features:

  • Watermark Types: Choose from image-based or text-based watermarks with full customization.
  • Flexible Application: Automatic watermarking on uploads, manual/bulk apply/remove via Media Library.
  • Advanced Customization: Position watermarks precisely, adjust sizes, opacity, and more.
  • Backup & Restore: Secure backups for easy watermark removal.
  • Image Protection: Prevent copying via right-click, drag-and-drop, and developer tools.
  • Technical Excellence: Supports JPEG, PNG, WebP; ImageMagick/GD engines; preserves metadata.

Perfect for photographers, bloggers, and businesses looking to safeguard their visual content.

For more information, check out the plugin page, documentation, or support forum.

Feature Breakdown:

Watermarking Types:
* Support for image-based watermarks (upload custom images as watermarks)
* Support for text-based watermarks (customizable fonts, colors, and sizes)
* Automatic watermarking on new uploads to the Media Library
* Manual and bulk watermarking for existing images (apply or remove via Media Library actions)

Customization & Settings:
* Flexible watermark positioning (9 alignment options with pixel or percentage-based offsets)
* Three watermark size modes: original, custom dimensions, or scaled to image size
* Adjustable watermark transparency and opacity
* Watermark image preview for real-time adjustments
* Selective application: Choose specific post types or enable everywhere (including frontend uploads)
* Image format selection (baseline or progressive JPEG)
* Configurable image quality settings

Backup & Management:
* Automatic image backup functionality (stores originals for easy restoration)
* Option to remove watermarks (restores from backups when available)
* Secure backup storage with .htaccess protection

Image Protection:
* Disable right-click context menus on images
* Prevent image copying via drag-and-drop
* Block access to developer tools for image inspection
* Customizable protection notice/toast message displayed to users attempting to copy images

Technical Information:
* Support for JPEG, PNG, and WebP image formats
* Dual image processing engines: ImageMagick (preferred) with GD library fallback
* EXIF and IPTC metadata preservation (where supported)
* Cache-busting for immediate thumbnail updates after watermark changes
* Translation-ready with included .pot file

Screenshots

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Installation

  1. Install the Plugin:

    • Via WordPress.org: Go to Plugins > Add New, search for “Image Watermark,” and click Install Now.
    • Manual Upload: Download the plugin ZIP from WordPress.org, then upload it via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
  2. Activate the Plugin:

    • After installation, activate Image Watermark through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
  3. Configure Settings:

    • Navigate to Settings > Watermark in your WordPress admin dashboard.
    • Choose your watermark type (image or text) and upload/select a watermark image if using image-based.
    • Adjust positioning, size, opacity, and other options as needed.
    • Select post types for automatic watermarking or enable for all uploads.
  4. Enable and Test:

    • Toggle the plugin on to start automatic watermarking for new uploads.
    • For existing images, go to Media Library > Bulk Select, choose images, and use the “Apply Watermark” bulk action.
    • Preview watermarks in the settings page and test on a sample image to ensure everything works.

Requirements: WordPress 6.0+, PHP 7.4+, and either GD or ImageMagick library. If issues arise, check server compatibility in Settings > Watermark > Status tab.

FAQ

No questions yet.

Reviews

Image
January 12, 2026
Works awesome on new photos. Makes it quick and easy to watermark our images. However, I have a few minor gripes. While in my media folder, when I apply watermarks to old photos it takes a while to update them. After applying a watermark to those old photos, I have had to go in and relink them. Lastly, when you want to protect the images, sometime it does not update or takes a ungodly amount of time to protect them. It’s probably something on my end, but I can’t take away any stars for something that could be on my end. I’ll have to look into that a little further. If I can’ figure it out I’ll have to update this review. If the developer has any suggestions or links to instructions that I’m missing, I would invite them.
Image
January 10, 2026
I have been using this plugin for over 5 years and it is really great. Easy to use and configure. Highly recommended.
Read all 201 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Image Watermark” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Image Watermark” has been translated into 9 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Image Watermark” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.0.3

  • New: Improved settings UI
  • Fix: Apply/remove watermark for post media modal
  • Fix: Improve media modal watermark actions UI and messaging
  • Tweak: New color picker and switch field type in settings.

2.0.2

  • Fix: Preserve PNG transparency when applying watermark using GD library.
  • Fix: Prevent applying watermark during watermark image upload
  • Fix: Migrate legacy watermark image setting into 2.0.x options

2.0.1

  • Fix: Settings save issue for unchecked options and CPT scope

2.0.0

  • New: Text watermark support
  • New: Enhanced watermark preview with real-time updates.
  • New: Support for additional watermark alignment options and percentage-based scaling.
  • Tweak: Improved user interface for settings page with modern design elements.
  • Tweak: Optimized image processing for faster bulk operations.
  • Fix: Enhanced error handling for unsupported image formats.

1.9.1

  • New: Bulk Apply/Remove Watermark buttons in Media Library grid view with native styling.
  • Fix: Cache-busting for thumbnails and attachment details so watermark changes show immediately.
  • Fix: Bulk actions now ignore unsupported/non-image files for safer processing.

1.9.0

  • Fix: Watermarked image not refreshing in attachment edit screen after watermark is applied or removed
  • Fix: Updated image reload selectors to support modern WordPress attachment details page structure
  • Tweak: Complete modern rewrite of Right click blocking feature

1.8.0

  • New: WebP image files support

1.7.4

  • Fix: Potential security issue with capability check – props WordFence
  • Fix: Saving post types settings issue
  • Tweak: WordPress 6.5 compatibility

1.7.3

  • Tweak: WordPress 6.2 compatibility
  • Tweak: PHP 8.2 compatibility

1.7.2

  • Fix: Missing admin-media.js file

1.7.1

  • Fix: Watermark option not available in Media Library

1.7.0

  • Tweak: WordPress 5.9 compatibility
  • Tweak: PHP 8.x compatibility

1.6.6

  • Tweak: PHP 7.3 compatibility

1.6.5

  • Fix: Improved support for PHP 7 and above
  • Fix: Backup folders handling of date based organized uploads

1.6.4

  • Fix: Transparent PNG issues with ImageMagick library

1.6.3.1

  • Fix: The plugin directory upload fix.

1.6.3

  • Fix: PNG files watermarking issue

1.6.2

  • New: Option to select watermark offset unit – pixels or percentages
  • Tweak: Added values to slider settings fields

1.6.1

  • Fix: Minor bug with AJAX requests, thanks to JoryHogeveen
  • Fix: Prevent watermarking the watermark image, thanks to JoryHogeveen
  • Tweak: Code cleanup

1.6.0

  • New: Image backup functionality, thanks to JoryHogeveen
  • New: Option to remove watermark (if backup is available)

1.5.6

  • New: PHP image processing library option, if more than one available.
  • Fix: Manual / Media library watermarking not working.
  • Fix: Image sizes not being generated properly in GD library.

1.5.5

  • Fix: Determine AJAX frontend or backend request
  • Tweak: Remove Polish and Russian translations, in favor of GlotPress

1.5.4

  • Fix: Use of undefined constant DOING_AJAX

1.5.3

  • New: ImageMagic support

1.5.2

  • Tweak: Switch from wp_get_referer() to DOING_AJAX and is_admin().

1.5.1

1.5.0

  • Tweak: Plugins setting adjusted to WP settings API
  • Tweak: General code cleanup
  • Tweak: Added Media Library bulk watermarking notice

1.4.1

  • New: Hungarian translation, thanks to Meszaros Tamas

1.4.0

  • New: Option to donate this plugin 🙂

1.3.3

  • New: Russian translation, thanks to Sly

1.3.2

  • New: Chinese translation, thanks to xiaoyaole

1.3.1

  • Fix: Option to disable right click on images not working

1.3.0

  • Tweak: Manual watermarking now works even if selected post types are selected
  • Tweak: UI improvements for WP 3.8
  • Fix: Image protection options not saving properly

1.2.1

  • New: German translation, thanks to Matthias Siebler

1.2.0

  • New: Frontend watermarking option (for front-end upload plugins and custom front-end upload code)
  • New: Introducing iw_watermark_display filter
  • New: Option to delete all plugin data on deactivation
  • Tweak: Rewritten watermark application method
  • Tweak: UI enhancements for settings page

1.1.4

  • New: Arabic translation, thanks to Hassan Hisham

1.1.3

  • New: Introducing API hooks: iw_before_apply_watermark, iw_after_apply_watermark, iw_watermark_options
  • Fix: Wrong watermark watermark path
  • Fix: Final fix (hopefully) for getimagesize() error

1.1.2

  • New: Image quality option
  • New: Image format selection (progressive or baseline)
  • Fix: Error when getimagesize() is not available on some servers
  • Tweak: Files & class naming conventions

1.1.1

  • New: Added option to enable or disable manual watermarking in Media Library
  • Fix: Apply watermark option not visible in Media Library actions
  • Fix: Warning on full size images

1.1.0

  • New: Bulk watermark – Apply watermark in Media Library actions
  • New: Watermark images already uploaded to Media Library

1.0.3

  • Fix: Error during upload of file types other than images (png, jpg)
  • Fix: Limit watermark file types to png, gif, jpg
  • Tweak: Validation for watermark size and transparency values
  • Tweak: Remove unnecessary functions
  • Tweak: Code cleanup
  • Tweak: Added more code comments
  • Tweak: Small css changes

1.0.2

  • New: Add watermark to custom image sizes registered in theme
  • Tweak: Admin notices on settings page if no watermark image selected
  • Tweak: JavaScript enqueuing on front-end
  • Tweak: General code cleanup
  • Tweak: Changed label for enabling image protection for logged-in users

1.0.1

  • Fix: Using image ID instead of image URL during image upload

1.0.0

Initial release