Skip to content
Log in Start free
Protect

Watermark patterns that cover the whole photo

A corner watermark can be cropped off in seconds. Protect lays a fine pattern over the entire photo, so there is no clean part left to take. 12 patterns, 4 of them free.

Protect your photos

  • Lines Free

  • Grid Free

  • Hatch Free

  • Waves Free

  • Dots Premium

  • Ripples Premium

  • Crosses Premium

  • Zigzag Premium

  • Honeycomb Premium

  • Guilloché Premium

  • Rays Premium

  • Film grain Premium

A coastal cliff above the sea with a protection pattern over the whole photo Guilloché
Try it

Four settings make it yours

Pick a pattern, then set its colour, opacity, size and thickness, so it shows clearly on a bright beach and a dark street alike.

Pattern
Colour

A preview drawn by this page. In the editor you also set the thickness of the lines, and pick any colour.

How it works

Protect a whole shoot in three steps

Protect is a step in the editor, next to Watermark, Crop and Frame. It works on photos.

  1. Add your photos and open Protect

    Drop in one photo or a whole folder, then choose Protect in the editor's tools.

  2. Pick a pattern and tune it

    Choose one of the 12 patterns and set its colour, opacity, size and thickness while you watch the photo.

  3. Apply it to every photo

    Apply to all files in the edit, add a watermark on top if you like, then finish and download.

Which one to use

A pattern or a corner watermark?

They do different jobs. A corner watermark says who made the photo. A pattern makes the photo hard to use without you.

A sea arch with a small signature watermark in the corner

Corner watermark

Keeps the photo clean and credits you wherever it is shared. Good for portfolios and social posts, where people should enjoy the photo.

A crop or a quick retouch takes it off.

The same sea arch covered by a fine hatch pattern

Protect pattern

Covers every part of the photo, so no crop leaves a clean copy. Good for client proofs, product photos, and anything you send before you are paid.

It changes how the photo looks, so keep it faint.

Use both on proofs. A faint pattern over the photo and your name in a corner: the pattern stops reuse, the name tells people whose work it is. Read more about tiled watermarks and whether watermarks can be removed.

Questions about Protect

Which patterns are free?
Lines, Grid, Hatch and Waves are free. Dots, Ripples, Crosses, Zigzag, Honeycomb, Guilloché, Rays and Film grain are Premium: you can apply them on the free plan and see them on every photo in the preview, and downloading those photos takes Premium.
Is a pattern the same as a tiled watermark?
No. A tiled watermark repeats your own text or logo across the photo; you turn it on with Tile in the Watermark tool. A pattern is a fine graphic, such as lines, a grid or a guilloché, laid over the whole photo. You can use both on the same photos. How to get a tiled watermark right.
Can a watermark pattern be removed?
Nothing on a photo is impossible to remove, but a pattern runs across the subject itself, so taking it off means repainting detail over the entire photo instead of one corner. That is far more work than cropping off a corner watermark. What makes a watermark hard to remove.
Does Protect work on videos and PDFs?
No, Protect is for photos. For videos, PDFs and Word documents, use the Watermark tool.
Can I protect many photos at once?
Yes. Apply the pattern to all files in the edit, up to 5,000 on Premium. The free plan processes one file per edit.

Leave no clean corner to crop

Try every pattern on your own photos. No account needed to start.

Protect your photos