Burn GPS and Details into a Photo | Prooflens
Frequently asked questions
- What does Prooflens burn into the photo?
- Date, time, GPS, altitude, project and notes — rendered as a forensic watermark on the image itself, with configurable templates and fields.
- What coordinate formats are supported?
- Decimal, DMS and MGRS, so the watermark can be read in the format the reader expects.
- Can I choose which fields get burned in?
- Yes. Templates and fields are configurable rather than fixed.
- Is the watermark itself evidence?
- It is a readable marker on the image. The cryptographic proof is the hash, timestamp and anchor — the watermark is what makes the capture legible to a person reading the photo.
The short answer
A proof establishes that a file has not changed. A watermark makes that file legible: it puts the capture's context on the image, where anyone looking at the photo can read it.
Prooflens burns date, time, GPS, altitude, project and notes into the photo as a forensic watermark. Templates and fields are configurable, so you decide what each capture carries.
Coordinate formats
GPS can be written as Decimal, DMS or MGRS. The choice matters because the reader is not always a surveyor: Decimal is unambiguous for a device readout, DMS is what a map uses, and MGRS is what a search-and-rescue team or a land surveyor will recognise.
What it is and is not
Worth being precise, because the two get conflated:
- The watermark is a readable marker on the image. It is what makes a photo self-describing to a person — an inspector, a client, a court clerk — without needing the app.
- The cryptographic proof is the SHA-256 manifest, RFC 3161 timestamp and blockchain anchor.
The watermark alone can be cropped or edited. The proof alone is unreadable without tooling. Having both means the evidence is verifiable and comprehensible, which is what the receiving party actually needs.