Image Compressor
Shrink JPG, PNG and WebP with a quality slider and live size readout.
Image & Photo
Add Text to Image
Captions, watermarks and labels, with readable contrast.
What it does. Text over a photograph fails for one reason more than any other: contrast. A photograph is not a uniform background, so white text that reads clearly over the sky becomes invisible over a cloud. The fix is an outline, a shadow or a scrim — not a different colour.
Runs in your browserNothing uploadsNo signupWorks offline
How to use Add Text to Image
- Drop in an image and type your text.
- Position it, then set size, colour and outline.
- Check the contrast reading before exporting.
Making text readable on a photograph
- A scrim. A semi-transparent dark panel behind the text. The most reliable method and the one most designers use.
- An outline. A contrasting stroke around each glyph — works over any background, and looks heavy at small sizes.
- A drop shadow. Subtler than an outline, less reliable over busy detail.
- A gradient overlay. Darkening one edge of the image; good for a caption along the bottom.
- Choosing a plain area. Free, and often overlooked.
A scrim at around 45% black under white text works over almost any photograph. If one technique is worth defaulting to, that is it.
Watermarks, and what they are for
A watermark deters casual reuse. It does not prevent it — anything visible can be cropped or painted out, and there are tools that do it well.
What a watermark does reliably is establish attribution when the image is shared honestly, and make casual theft slightly inconvenient.
Placement is the trade. A watermark in a corner is easy to crop; one across the middle survives but ruins the image. Semi-transparent, across a region that cannot be cropped without losing the subject, is the usual compromise.
Sizing text for where it will be seen
Text sized on a full-resolution image is much smaller than it looks once the image appears in a feed at 400 pixels wide.
Size it as a proportion of the image, not in absolute pixels — around 4–6% of the image height for a caption is a sound starting point.
The check that settles it: shrink the preview to the width it will actually be displayed at. If the caption is not readable there, it is not readable.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make text readable over a photo?
A semi-transparent dark scrim behind the text — roughly 45% black under white type works over almost any image. An outline or shadow also works; changing the text colour alone rarely does.
Do watermarks stop image theft?
No. Anything visible can be cropped or removed. A watermark deters casual reuse and establishes attribution when the image is shared honestly — that is its realistic value.
Where should a watermark go?
Somewhere that cannot be cropped without losing the subject. A corner is easy to remove; across the middle survives but ruins the image. Semi-transparent over the subject area is the usual compromise.
How big should caption text be?
About 4–6% of the image height, sized proportionally rather than in fixed pixels. Then check it at the width it will actually be displayed — feeds shrink images a lot.
What font should I use?
A heavy sans-serif for anything over a photograph. Thin and script faces lose legibility against detail, and at small display sizes they disappear entirely.