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joyceg2326990
Participant
May 21, 2022
Answered

Watermark comes out blurry in Lightroom export

  • May 21, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 1028 views

Hello,

I've been using the same watermark image for over a year now.

It always comes out looking crisp.

Today I went through my usual procedure of selecting a watermark image to go an export in JPG format.

 

When I click on the gear icon to go to watermark settings and select the png I want to use for the watermark, the watermark looks crisp and clear, as usual.

 

When I click "done" after selecting the watermark, I am taken back to the preview of the export.

 

The watermark is blurry and pixelated.

 

If I go ahead and click export, my image shows the blurry, pixelated watermark.

 

You can see the differences here: https://cloudup.com/cfTLyhfaHSH

 

Why is it doing this? How do I fix this?

 

I've tried:

Updating Creative Cloud

Updating Lightroom

Quitting Lightroom and restarting multiple times

Waiting

 

Again I must emphasize: the PNG itself is not blurry, and it shows crisp when I'm inside the settings to select the watermark image itself. It also worked perfectly until today with all the same settings in place.

 

I looked online and the only other info I can find is about fonts not working well for exports. I am not using a font, but a high-quality PNG image. 

 

Settings are:

File type: JPG

Dimensions: Full Size

Quality: 100%

Include watermark: checked

All metadata

File naming: original

Output sharpening: none

Colorspace: sRGB

 

Version of the app: 5.3

On a MacOS Catalina 10.15.7

 

Thank you for your help

Correct answer joyceg2326990

I found that if the image is low resolution, the watermark comes out low resolution. But if you export the watermark on a full size JPG or RAW image, then it comes out clear. But it shouldn't be like this. The watermark should never come out blurry in my opinion. It should go 'on top' of the image, whatever resolution it is. I am not sure if this is the fix, just something I've noticed I need to do before I watermark photos.

2 replies

Participant
September 6, 2025

Did you find a fix? I've the same issue. Used to add watermarks with Photoscape and it never happened, now I tried adding it in Lightroom and it looks like garbage.

Participant
January 6, 2024

I have the EXACT same issue and would love to hear a solution. 

joyceg2326990
joyceg2326990AuthorCorrect answer
Participant
January 6, 2024

I found that if the image is low resolution, the watermark comes out low resolution. But if you export the watermark on a full size JPG or RAW image, then it comes out clear. But it shouldn't be like this. The watermark should never come out blurry in my opinion. It should go 'on top' of the image, whatever resolution it is. I am not sure if this is the fix, just something I've noticed I need to do before I watermark photos.