A watermark lets your client see their photos in the gallery while protecting your work, for example until the final invoice is paid. You choose a watermark style once in Settings, then turn watermarks on for a project's gallery and the photos you want to protect. When you are ready, turn the watermark off and your client gets the clean photos.
This article covers choosing your watermark style, turning it on for a gallery, choosing which photos are protected, what your client sees, and removing the watermark.
Where to find it: Your watermark style is in Settings > Business > Watermark. To turn it on for a gallery, open the project and click Media in the left menu. On a phone, tap the menu icon at the top left first to open the menu.
In this article
- How watermarks work
- Choose your watermark style
- Turn on watermarks for a gallery
- Choose which photos are protected
- What your client sees
- Remove the watermark
- Watermark your portfolio
- Change your watermark
- Tips
- Troubleshooting
- Related articles
How watermarks work
- A photo is watermarked only when the gallery's Enable Watermark switch is on and the photo is marked as protected.
- RebookMedia makes a watermarked copy of each protected photo. Your original is never changed.
- Watermarks apply to photos (such as JPG and PNG), not to videos or PDFs.
- Watermarks are always added by hand. Nothing removes them automatically when a client pays, so remember to turn them off when you deliver.
Choose your watermark style
In Settings > Business, the Watermark card shows five styles. Click one to make it your default:
- Diagonal name repeat: your business name repeated across the whole photo.
- Proof grid: a fine grid with "PROOF" and your name in every square.
- Fine-line mesh: crossing wavy lines with your name in the middle.
- Your logo, repeated: your logo repeated across the photo.
- Your logo, centered: one logo in the middle of the photo. It's the least intrusive, but also the easiest to remove.
Styles marked AI-resistant cover the whole photo, which makes them much harder to remove than a single logo. Each photo's pattern is shifted slightly, so it looks natural across a gallery.
Fine-tune it
- Preview: shows your watermark on a sample photo as you change it.
- Watermark text: the text the name, proof grid and mesh styles use (up to 40 characters). Leave it blank to use your business name.
- Color: Light or Dark text and lines; choose the one that shows best on your photos.
- Opacity: how see-through it is.
- Size: how big the text or logo is.
- Your logo: click Upload logo to use the logo styles. A PNG with a transparent background works best (JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB).
Everything saves as you go; you will see "Saved". Opacity and size are remembered separately for each style.
Good to know: uploading or replacing your logo switches your default style to Your logo, repeated. Click another style afterwards if you prefer it.
Turn on watermarks for a gallery
- Open the project and click Media in the left menu.
- In the panel on the left, click the Watermark icon (the rosette with a check mark).
- Turn on Enable Watermark. You will see "Data save successfully."
- Under Watermark style, leave My default, or choose a different style for this project.
- Click Apply Watermark to All Media to protect every photo, or choose photos as shown below.
A progress box shows "Updating watermarks: X of Y ready" while the copies are made, then "All N photos protected". This can take a little while for large galleries. Protected photos show a green Protected badge.
Choose which photos are protected
- One photo: open the photo's menu and choose Enable/Disable Watermark Protection.
- Several photos: click photos to select them (or Select all media), then click Apply watermark to selected media or Remove watermark from selected media in the bar at the bottom.
- All photos: click Apply Watermark to All Media.
Tip: you can protect only some photos, for example leave a few favorites clean as a preview, and watermark the rest.
What your client sees
- In the gallery, protected photos show your watermark.
- If downloads are allowed, downloading a protected photo gives the watermarked version, at a smaller size than the original.
- Download all leaves protected photos out, so clients can't download the clean files.
- In their RebookMedia account, protected photos can be downloaded one at a time, with the watermark, but not selected or included in a ZIP.
- Unprotected photos, videos and documents download as normal.
- When watermarks are on, the gallery's cover photo and its link preview are watermarked too.
See View, favorite and download your photos for your client's side.
Remove the watermark
When your client has paid, or whenever you are ready to deliver:
- Turn off Enable Watermark on the project's Media page to remove it from the whole gallery, or
- select photos and click Remove watermark from selected media (or use the photo's menu) to remove it from some photos only.
The change applies straight away: the next time your client opens the gallery or downloads, they get the clean photos. If they already have the gallery open, they should refresh the page. Let your client know their full photos are ready.
Watermark your portfolio
You can also watermark the photos on your website and profile: on the Portfolio page, open the Watermark tab, turn on Enable Watermark, choose a style, and choose All portfolio photos or Only photos for sale. Your original files don't change. See Manage your portfolio.
Change your watermark
When you change your style, text, color, opacity, size or logo in Settings, the watermarked copies in galleries that use it are updated automatically. Your client keeps seeing the previous watermark until each new copy is ready.
Tips
- Use a whole-photo style (name repeat, proof grid or mesh) for galleries you deliver before payment.
- Use Your logo, centered when you want a light touch, for example on sneak peeks.
- Pair watermarks with a gallery password for private sessions.
- Send the invoice when you deliver the watermarked gallery, and remove the watermark as soon as it's paid.
Troubleshooting
My client sees "Protected preview, Being prepared"
Its watermarked copy is still being made. Check again in a few minutes. If it stays that way, replace the photo with Update (you can use the same file) to try again.
The Enable Watermark switch didn't stay on
If password protection is on, the password must be filled in and strong enough, or the switch won't save. Look for a password message, fix the password and try again.
The logo styles are greyed out
Upload your logo first: click a logo style or Upload logo in Settings > Business > Watermark.
"The watermark must be a PNG or JPG image."
Upload your logo as a JPG or PNG file under 10 MB.
"Could not save the watermark. Try again."
Reload the page and try again.
Some photos aren't watermarked
Check they are marked as protected (green Protected badge) and that Enable Watermark is on. Upload JPG or PNG versions of RAW files to the gallery, so they can be watermarked.
My client can still download a clean photo
That photo isn't protected. Select it and click Apply watermark to selected media.
Still stuck? Book a free 30-minute call with our support team and we will walk through it with you.