How to Set Up Easy Watermark for Automatic Image Protection

Easy Watermark applies watermarks to images automatically on upload. Here is how to configure it for the most common watermarking scenarios.

Initial Setup

After installing and activating Easy Watermark, go to Settings, then Easy Watermark. You will see tabs for Image Watermark and Text Watermark. You can use both types, but most sites use one or the other.

Setting Up an Image Watermark (Logo)

1. Go to Settings, then Easy Watermark, then Image Watermark tab.
2. Enable the image watermark.
3. Click Select Image and choose your logo from the media library or upload it. Use a PNG file with a transparent background for the best result — a white background logo creates a visible box on the image.
4. Set Position — use the 9-point grid to choose where the watermark appears. Bottom-right is the most common choice for photo watermarking.
5. Set Watermark size as a percentage of the image width. Start at 20% and adjust based on how it looks on your typical image size.
6. Set Opacity — 70-80% is typically visible but not overpowering. 100% is fully opaque.
7. Under Apply to, select which image sizes should receive the watermark. Watermarking large and medium sizes is usually sufficient — watermarking thumbnails produces very small watermarks.
8. Save settings.

Setting Up a Text Watermark

1. Go to the Text Watermark tab.
2. Enable text watermark.
3. Enter your watermark text — typically your site name, domain, or copyright notice.
4. Set font, size, and colour. White text with black shadow or dark text on lighter images works well.
5. Set position and opacity as with image watermarks.
6. Save settings.

Selecting Which Image Sizes to Watermark

WordPress generates multiple image sizes for each upload: thumbnail, medium, medium-large, large, and the original. Watermarking all sizes ensures every display context is protected but increases processing time. Watermarking only large and medium covers most front-end display uses. The thumbnail size (150x150px typically) often makes the watermark illegibly small anyway.

The original upload file is a special case. By default, Easy Watermark does not watermark the original upload. If you want the original protected, enable this in settings — but then your original files are permanently modified and cannot be used for print without the watermark.

Bulk Watermarking Existing Images

Easy Watermark only applies to images uploaded after it is configured. To watermark existing media library images:

1. Go to Settings, then Easy Watermark.
2. Scroll down to the Bulk Watermark section.
3. Click Watermark All Images.
4. Wait for the bulk process to complete — on large media libraries this can take several minutes.

Back up your site before bulk watermarking. The process modifies image files permanently and cannot be undone automatically.

Verifying the Watermark Output

After saving settings, upload a test image and check the result in the media library. Click the image to open it and view the large size. The watermark should be visible in the position and at the opacity you configured. If it looks wrong, adjust the settings and re-upload the test image (or regenerate thumbnails for the test image).

For more complex image protection setups including watermarking specific image categories and serving protected images through a secure delivery system, a WordPress developer can implement a custom solution.