Introducing Watermarker Pro

It’s been awhile since I introduced a new app, well actually it’s been ages – iKana nōto was the last one and was introduced in 2011! There have been a lot of app updates to my other apps since then of course, but the only ‘new’ apps I’ve launched have been for clients, so it’s really great to finally be releasing something new under the ThinkMac banner. So today, please welcome to the stage Watermarker Pro.

I’ve been an avid photographer for almost as long as I’ve been an app developer so this is something near and dear to my heart. The fact is images are stollen every second of the day – a lot of the time this is done innocently enough, you Google Image Search a photo and then stick it on your website or you share a photo you like on your Facebook account. No big deal right? But yeah actually if you’re the owner of that photo it kind of sucks, especially if you’re either counting on licensing it to make money or if you’re sharing it in the hopes of driving people back to your site or feed.

So what to do? Well honestly you have limited options, barring simply not posting your images online, but one thing you can do is watermark your images! That means to put a stamp onto the image that identifies it as yours. That might be your company name, your Instagram username, a logo, a web address or whatever you like. Your image can and likely will still get used without your permission but now people at least know who the image belongs to and hopefully if they see a big fat © in the middle of a photo they’ll think twice and maybe try and get in touch to find out how much it would cost to get a version without that mark on it. Of course if you’re a Photoshop wizard you can potentially edit out a watermark, but most people aren’t Photoshop wizards and a watermark can therefore be an effective deterrent.

Beyond the simple protection angle though is the idea of using watermarks as part of your brand strategy. Let’s face it, we’re all building brands these days, whether as companies or individuals. We sell our lives, our art and our products on social media and we want to make sure people know when an image is ours. Imagine if your image goes viral – how great would it be if your logo and web address were burned into it? There’s no point in getting a ton of exposure for your work if no one knows it’s your work.

Anyway enough sell on the concept – Watermarker Pro is designed to be intuitive and fast to use. It’s as simple as 1 – choose an image, 2 – design a watermark or choose one you created previously, 3 – place the watermark and share the image.

Watermarks can be composed of a combination of up to 20 symbols, text elements or arbitrary images and you can save an unlimited number of them on your device. Just drag elements into position with your finger, they’ll snap to guides to help you align them, pinch to resize and you’re done.

Then you can use a very similar interface to place the watermark on your photo, set the colour, opacity and shadow to make it stand out. When you’re happy with the layout, you’re just a tap away from saving the image back to your photo library or sharing it directly to Instagram or another social network. Watermarker Pro will of course remember things like the opacity, colour and position of the watermark to speed things up next time.

If you share images online, whether as a photographer, a brand or as an influencer check out Watermarker Pro on the App Store – available now from just $2.99 with no ads, no in-app purchase and no subscriptions. Proper software; you pay for it, you own it!