Guide
Watermark photos in Google Drive
Put your logo or a © line on every photo in a Drive folder at once — without downloading them, opening an editor, or uploading them anywhere. PixelCinch stamps them in your browser and saves the watermarked copies back to Drive.
How to do it
- Open PixelCinch and sign in with Google. It can only see the files you pick.
- Pick the photos — or a whole folder — from My Drive, a shared drive, or files shared with you.
- Under Watermark, choose text, a logo, or both. Type your text or choose your logo file.
- Pick a position on the 3 × 3 grid, or tick Repeat across the image. Set size and opacity.
- Check the live preview on your first photo, then press Compress.
Settings that matter
- Size is the width of the watermark as a share of the photo’s short side, so portrait and landscape photos get the same-looking mark. 20–40% suits most logos.
- Opacity from 10 to 100%. Around 60–85% for a corner logo; 25–40% for a repeated pattern that should not hide the photo.
- Text colour is white or black, with a soft shadow so it stays readable on both light and dark parts of the photo.
- Repeat across the image tiles the mark diagonally. Harder to crop out — useful for proofs you send to clients before they pay.
Who uses it
Real estate agents put the agency logo on a listing folder and size it for the MLS in the same run. Photographers send watermarked proofs and keep the clean originals next to them. Online shops brand product photos before they go to Shopify, Etsy or a marketplace.
Questions
Is my logo uploaded anywhere?
No. The logo and your watermark settings are stored in your own browser. The photos are read from Google Drive, stamped on your computer and written back to Drive — there is no PixelCinch server in that path.
Can I watermark and resize at the same time?
Yes. The watermark is added after resizing, so it has the same proportion on every output — a 6000-pixel original and a 1600-pixel web copy look the same.
Will it overwrite my original photos?
Not by default. A watermark cannot be removed later, so when you turn it on PixelCinch switches “Save to” to a new folder and keeps the clean originals. You can still choose to overwrite, and it asks you to confirm first.
What logo file should I use?
A PNG with a transparent background works best. SVG, WebP and JPEG also work. Large logos are scaled down to 1000 pixels, which is more than enough for a watermark.
Does it watermark videos?
Not yet. Videos in the same run are compressed as usual, without a watermark.
Does it cost extra?
No. Watermarking is part of every plan, including the free one. A watermarked photo counts as one image, the same as without a watermark.
Related: bulk resize images in Google Drive · compress images in Google Drive · compress videos