Watermark recipe

Add Text Watermark with FFmpeg

Place a text watermark on a video with FFmpeg drawtext.

Command

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vf "drawtext=text='MyBrand':fontcolor=white:fontsize=28:x=w-tw-20:y=h-th-20" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -c:a copy "watermarked.mp4"

Use this when

You want a simple visible brand mark on a video.
You need to place text in a corner or center position.
You are comfortable choosing a local font when needed.

Customize it

Generate FFmpeg drawtext commands to add a text watermark, label, or copyright notice to video.

Open Add Text Watermark

Parameter breakdown

drawtext

FFmpeg filter for rendering text onto video frames.

text='MyBrand'

The watermark text. Escape quotes carefully in your shell.

x=w-tw-20:y=h-th-20

Places the watermark 20px from the bottom-right corner.

fontcolor=white

Sets the text color.

Variants

Top-left watermark

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vf "drawtext=text='MyBrand':fontcolor=white:fontsize=28:x=20:y=20" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -c:a copy "watermarked.mp4"

Semi-transparent with border

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vf "drawtext=text='MyBrand':fontcolor=white@0.55:fontsize=32:borderw=2:bordercolor=black:x=w-tw-20:y=h-th-20" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -c:a copy "watermarked.mp4"