Guides · Watermark · Updated 23 October 2026
What happens to a photo when it is resized or cropped
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A photograph that is shared can end up resized, cropped, recompressed or screenshotted. This page shows what our tests found happens to an invisible watermark in those cases, and how well a copy was still recognised by how it looks. The test images were generated paintings, not photographs, so read the results as a guide, not a promise.
Resizing and cropping remove the mark
In our tests, any resize (to 75%, 50% or 25%, or enlarged 2x) and any crop (to 90% or to 50%) removed the invisible watermark, and so did rotating, mirroring, a brightness change, JPEG at quality 70 or 50, and a screenshot-like copy. The mark survived lossless saving, JPEG at quality 85 or higher, WEBP at quality 90, a contrast increase, black and white, a hue shift and a sepia tone. The full list is in what an invisible watermark survives.
So a resized or cropped copy of a photograph will not carry the mark. Finding such a copy depends on how it looks.
The same edits, checked by look
For the edits we measured with the same setting both ways, this is what happened. “Mark” says whether the invisible mark could still be read. “By look” says whether the comparison flagged the copy for you to review (“found by the mark” means the mark itself identified it).
| Edit | Mark | By look |
|---|---|---|
| Black and white | Readable | Found by the mark |
| Hue shift | Readable | Found by the mark |
| Sepia tone | Readable | Found by the mark |
| JPEG quality 70 | Lost | Flagged on every image |
| Resized to 50% | Lost | Flagged on every image |
| Screenshot-like (half size, then JPEG quality 80) | Lost | Flagged on every image |
| Resized to 25% | Lost | Flagged some of the time |
Other edits, measured by look only
- Cropped to the middle 60 percent: flagged on every test image.
- A 40 percent corner crop: flagged only some of the time.
- Brighter (plus 40 percent): flagged on every test image.
- Framed and hung in a room mockup, the artwork about 40 percent of the width: flagged on every test image. In a small mockup (about 25 percent of the width): only some of the time.
- Unrelated images were never flagged.
Expect to miss very small copies, a small corner of the picture and small mockups some of the time.
What we have not tested
- Real photographs. Photographs differ from our generated images in texture, grain and flat areas.
- Re-creating the image with an AI tool, other editing programs, other quality settings and combinations of edits.
- How often a search finds the page that shows a copy in the first place. These tests only measure what happens once an image is in hand.
What this means for a photographer
- Share the protected copy, never your original, and keep your original private.
- Do not count on the mark to find a copy that was resized or cropped.
- Check copies by how they look as well, and treat every match as a possible match you review yourself.
More on using TraceMyAssets as a photographer, how to check whether your work was reposted, and the plans.
Questions
Does cropping a photo remove the invisible watermark? In our tests, yes: every crop we tried removed it.
Can a cropped copy still be found? Sometimes. A crop to the middle 60 percent was flagged on every test image; a small corner crop only some of the time.
Do these results apply to my photos? Not necessarily. We tested generated images, not photographs.
Related reading
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