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Design a Visible Watermark

The watermark editor with the video preview on the left and the Watermarks panel listing element types on the right

Turn on the Visible Watermarking toggle (see Set Up Asset Protection), then click Configure Watermark (just below the toggle) to open the watermark editor and design the overlay that appears over the video. You can also open the editor before enabling the feature, in which case a banner prompts you to turn it on.

Add watermark elements

Add any combination of these elements:

  • Custom text - your own text
  • Viewer email, Viewer name, User ID, IP address - these fill in automatically with the details of whoever is watching
  • Timeline - shows the current playback time

Custom text can include dynamic placeholders that are replaced per viewer at playback: $user_name and $user_email. Use | to define a fallback when a value is missing, for example $user_name | Guest.

The Dynamic placeholders popover showing the user name and user email placeholders and the fallback syntax

Style each element

Open an element's settings to adjust:

  • Size - from 12 to 60 px
  • Color
  • Background - set a color or remove it
  • Visibility - Always, or Scheduled so the watermark shows on an interval (set how often it shows and for how long, in mm:ss)

The Custom text element settings with Visibility, Size, Color, and Background options

Preview and save

Set the preview background to Dark, Light, or upload a frame, and pick an aspect ratio (16:9, 2:1, 2.39:1, 9:16, 4:5, or 1:1). On a video asset, the preview plays the real frame so you can position the watermark precisely. Save when you are done.

A custom text watermark reading Unfinished and Prerelease Content shown over a video frame in the preview

Per-viewer elements like Viewer email are what make a visible watermark useful for tracing leaks: each person sees their own identity burned into the video.