Web Profiles

Timestamp watermark

A band that prints the capture time and URL onto the media itself. Off by default, and the setting that makes a capture readable as an exhibit — though it is not what proves the time.

What it does

The setting is under Fine-tuning › Timestamp watermark. It works for images and PDFs; it is not available for video.

Every capture already records when it was taken — the app shows it, and the capture detail panel lists it. The watermark puts that same time inside the image, so it survives being downloaded, emailed, printed or pasted into a document.

The band has two lines: the address of the page, and Captured on 2026-09-27 14:05:31 UTC by WebsiteScreenshotWorld.com with the real capture time. On an image, and on an Image Based PDF, the band is added above or below the page, so it covers nothing. On a Document Based PDF it is drawn onto the first or the last page.

The fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`Stamp the capture time onto the image`	Switch	Off	Adds the overlay to every capture this profile produces.
`Text colour`Required	Colour	#000000	The text colour.
`Background`Required	Colour	#ffffff	The band behind the text, so it stays readable over any page.
`Position`Required	Top or Bottom	—	Which edge of the capture the band sits on.

It is part of the image, permanently

The overlay is drawn into the file at capture time. It cannot be removed later, and turning the setting on does not add it to captures you already have. Decide before the schedule starts running.

Why it matters for evidence

A screenshot on its own proves very little. Anyone can produce an image of a web page; nothing about the file says when it was made, and file metadata is trivially edited.

A capture produced automatically, on a schedule nobody intervened in, is a materially stronger record than one somebody took by hand. That strength comes from the process and from what is recorded alongside the file — the moment the page was actually fetched, the address the browser landed on, and the file's own hash. The watermark is how a person reads that, on a page that has been printed and put in a bundle.

Compliance — showing a required disclosure was present on a given date.
Advertising claims — recording what a competitor published, and when.
Contract and pricing disputes — the terms as published on the day of the order.
Takedown and moderation — what was there before it was removed.

What the watermark is, and is not

The watermark is how a person reads the capture — it is not what proves the time. Anyone can draw a date onto an image. What makes the time checkable is the fetch moment and the file hash recorded with every capture, which travel with your download and can be verified without us. Think of the two as a pair: the band is for the human reading the exhibit, the hash is for anyone who wants to test it.

Pair it with a PDF

For evidence going to somebody outside your team, an Image Based PDF with the watermark on travels better than a PNG: it opens the same way everywhere and is harder to pass off as an ordinary screenshot.

Choosing colours

Keep the defaults unless you have a reason. Black on white is legible on every page and photographs and prints cleanly.
Top is where people look first. On an image the band covers nothing either way, so put it where the reader of the exhibit will see it. On a Document Based PDF it is drawn onto a page, so pick the edge that carries less you care about.
Do not go subtle. A low-contrast watermark defeats the purpose — it needs to stay readable after the image has been scaled down into a report.

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