Remove a watermark, date stamp or small object from your own photos
This free tool helps you remove a watermark from an image you own — the orange date stamp an old camera burned into the corner, a small logo you added yourself, a speck of dust on the lens or a stray power line in the sky. Paint over it with your finger or mouse and the marked pixels are filled in from the surrounding area within a second.
The filling is done by inpainting from OpenCV, the widely used open-source computer vision library (Apache 2.0 licence), compiled to WebAssembly so it runs inside your browser. Choose between its two classic algorithms, Telea and Navier–Stokes, repeat as many strokes as you need, undo any of them and compare with the original before you save. Your picture never leaves your device; only the OpenCV engine (about 10 MB) is downloaded once and then cached by your browser.
How to use the Remove Image Watermark
- Drop an image onto the upload box, click it to choose a file, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V.
- The first time, wait a moment while the inpainting engine downloads (see the progress bar).
- Keep the brush on “Mark” and paint over the watermark, date stamp or object. Cover it completely, with a little margin. Use “Unmark” to take back part of a stroke.
- Lift your finger or mouse: the area is filled in. Repeat for other marks, press Undo to step back, or try the other fill method and a different fill radius.
- Press “Compare with original” to check the result, tick “This is my image or I have permission to edit it”, and press “Download image”.
Remove Image Watermark features
Two inpainting methods
Telea’s fast-marching method and the Navier–Stokes method, both from OpenCV. Try both — one often looks better than the other on a particular texture.
Touch-friendly brush
Paint with a finger, pen or mouse. Drawing on the picture doesn’t scroll the page, and the brush size is measured on screen.
Many strokes, full undo
Fix one mark at a time, undo the last fix or stroke, or start over from the original at any point.
Expandable mask
“Expand marked area” grows each stroke by a few pixels so anti-aliased edges, outlines and glows around text are removed too.
Only marked pixels change
Everything outside your brush stays exactly as it was.
How inpainting works — and why it has limits
Inpainting treats the area you paint as a hole and rebuilds it from its border. Telea’s method (Alexandru Telea, 2004) fills the hole from the outside in, a pixel at a time, giving each new pixel a weighted average of the known pixels nearby, with more weight for pixels close by and along the direction of the edge. The Navier–Stokes method (Bertalmío, Bertozzi and Sapiro, 2001) borrows equations from fluid dynamics to carry lines of equal brightness into the hole so that edges continue smoothly.
Both are classic image-processing algorithms, not generative AI: they never invent new detail. They are fast and predictable, but they shine on smooth surroundings and struggle with structure. A thin date stamp over a sky, wall or lawn usually disappears completely. A large logo over a face, a brick wall, a patterned shirt or text will be replaced by a smooth, blurred patch that is easy to spot. “Fill radius” sets how far beyond the hole the algorithm looks: small values keep detail sharp, larger ones give smoother fills.
Tips for a cleaner result
- Cover the whole mark, including any shadow, outline or glow. Leftover edge pixels get smeared into the fill.
- Work in small pieces. Several short strokes, each filled before the next, usually look better than one huge area.
- Try both methods and a couple of radius values — press Undo between tries.
- Crop instead when you can. A watermark in a corner often vanishes best with Crop Image.
- Hide rather than remove sensitive details with Pixelate Image, which is the right tool for faces, number plates and private text.
- On grainy photos the fill can look too smooth; a light pass through the Image Denoiser evens it out.
Copyright: only edit images you are allowed to edit
Watermarks usually exist to identify the owner of a photo. Removing a watermark from an image you don’t own, or from a stock or agency photo you haven’t licensed, can infringe copyright — and in many countries — including the USA (DMCA section 1202), the UK and India — knowingly removing copyright management information such as a photographer’s name or logo can be unlawful in itself. Use this tool for your own photos, images you have a licence or written permission to edit, and harmless marks such as camera date stamps. That is why the download only works after you confirm you own the image or have permission. If you want to protect your own pictures, add a watermark with Watermark Image.
Remove Image Watermark FAQ
How do I remove a watermark from an image for free?
Open the image here, paint over the watermark with the “Mark” brush and lift your finger or mouse — the area is filled in from the surrounding pixels. Confirm you own the image or have permission, then download. No sign-up, no added watermark.
Can it remove any watermark?
No. It works best on small marks over simple backgrounds such as sky, walls or skin. Large watermarks across a whole photo, or marks over faces, text and patterns, leave a smudged patch because inpainting can only extend what is around the hole.
Is it legal to remove a watermark?
It is fine for your own images and images you have permission to edit. Removing a watermark from someone else’s photo without permission can infringe copyright, and removing copyright information is unlawful in many countries. This tool asks you to confirm permission before saving.
How do I remove a date stamp from an old photo?
Choose a brush slightly wider than the digits, paint over the whole date in one or two strokes and let it fill. If a faint outline remains, raise “Expand marked area” to 3–4 px, press Undo and paint again.
Telea or Navier–Stokes — which should I use?
Start with Telea, which is quick and works well on most small marks. If straight edges or stripes running through the mark look broken, undo and try Navier–Stokes, which continues edges more smoothly.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The image is edited in your browser with OpenCV compiled to WebAssembly. Only the OpenCV engine is downloaded from a public CDN, and your browser keeps it cached for next time.