Add Text Watermark to Video
Add your handle, copyright notice, label, or brand text to a video. Choose the position and size, then export a watermarked file.
Add a watermark
Pick the one with better contrast against your video. The drop shadow auto-flips to the opposite color to stay legible on both light and dark scenes.
70% reads as a tasteful watermark. 100% for emphasis (copyright burn). 50% for a barely-there mark.
Sign in to run this tool — 100 free credits on signup.
FFmpeg flags used by this tool
Quick reference for what each parameter actually does.
- drawtext
- FFmpeg's text overlay filter. Renders your text on every frame with the configured position, font, and color.
- fontsize
- Font size in pixels. We use 18 / 28 / 42 for small / medium / large — readable on 720p+ video without dominating the frame.
- [email protected]
- White text at 70% opacity. The translucency keeps the watermark visible without being obnoxious — fully opaque text reads as cheap.
- shadowcolor / shadowx / shadowy
- 1px black shadow with 30% opacity. Makes the text legible on both bright and dark backgrounds without doing anything fancy.
- tw / th
- Text width / height — used in the position math to right-align or center-align the text precisely against the frame.
How it works
- 01
Upload or paste a URL
Drop a video from your computer, or paste a public URL. Up to 5 GB.
- 02
Set the text
Your handle, copyright notice, anything. Special characters work — quotes are auto-escaped for shell safety.
- 03
Pick position and size
Bottom-right is the default for a reason — most editing apps put their watermark there. Center for emphasis.
- 04
Download the result
Temporary download link as soon as it's done. Files auto-delete after 7 days.
FAQ
Can I use a custom font?
Through this UI, no — we use the system default. The API accepts a fontfile=path argument; with our Files API you can upload a TTF first.
Why white text with a shadow?
A shadow keeps the watermark readable across both bright and dark scenes without making it too distracting.
Can I add an image watermark instead?
Not from this UI — but the API supports the overlay filter for image watermarks. Upload your logo through Files API, then chain `-i logo.png -filter_complex 'overlay=W-w-20:H-h-20'`.
Can the watermark be animated or move around?
Yes via the API — drawtext supports time-based expressions like x='(W-tw)*t/10' for a horizontal scroll. Most users don't want this, so we kept it static here.
Will the watermark survive re-compression?
Yes — we burn it into the actual pixels. Whatever happens to the video later, the watermark stays. That's why we re-encode (it's not metadata).
Is this free?
Sign up for 100 free credits. A watermark costs 2-8 credits depending on length. No subscription, top up as you go.
Related video tools
Need to watermark in code?
This tool is a wrapper around our REST API — three lines of curl will do the same job in your build pipeline or backend.
View API docscurl -X POST https://api.ffhub.io/v1/tasks \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d {
"command": "-i https://you.com/in.mp4 -vf drawtext=text=FFHub:fontsize=28:[email protected]:x=w-tw-20:y=h-th-20 -c:a copy output.mp4"
}