Watermark Remover

A cross-platform desktop application for removing static watermarks from video files. Draw a box over the watermark, pick a removal method, and export a clean output — no cloud upload, no subscription, everything runs locally.

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Features

• Interactive ROI selector — drag-to-resize bounding box directly on the video frame via Konva.js canvas
• Four removal engines — Inpainting (TELEA), Gaussian Blur, Solid Fill, Clone Stamp
• 3-second quick preview — test your settings on a short clip before committing to a full render
• Real-time progress bar — frame-by-frame progress streamed from the Python backend via IPC
• Multi-core processing — Python multiprocessing.Pool saturates all CPU cores automatically
• Audio preserved — original audio track is muxed back into the output with zero re-encoding
• Zero temp files — all intermediate frames are deleted from disk on completion or error
• Fully offline — no internet connection; no data ever leaves your machine

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Screenshots

Launch screen	Video loaded — pick a method

Ready to export	Processing in progress	Export complete

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Prerequisites

Dependency	Version	Install
Node.js	18+	nodejs.org
Python	3.11+	python.org
FFmpeg	6+	brew install ffmpeg / choco install ffmpeg / apt install ffmpeg

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Quick Start

1. Clone

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/watermark-remover.git
cd watermark-remover

2. Install Node dependencies

npm install
cd renderer && npm install && cd ..

3. Set up the Python backend

python3 -m venv backend/.venv
source backend/.venv/bin/activate        # macOS/Linux
# backend\.venv\Scripts\activate         # Windows

pip install -r backend/requirements.txt

4. Validate the environment

python scripts/validate_env.py
# Expected: EXIT:0 — all checks passed

5. Run in development mode

npm run dev

The Electron window opens automatically once Vite's dev server is ready at http://localhost:5173.

6. Build a distributable

npm run dist
# Output: dist/  →  .dmg (macOS) | .exe (Windows) | .AppImage (Linux)

See RELEASING.md for code signing, GitHub Actions CI/CD, versioning, and publishing a GitHub Release.

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Usage

See HELP.md for a step-by-step guide with screenshots and tips for each removal method.

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Project Layout

See PROJECT_STRUCTURE.md for a full annotated map of every file and directory.

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Testing

See TESTING.md for how to run the full test suite (backend + renderer) and what each test covers.

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop shell	Electron 41
UI framework	React 19 + TypeScript
Build tool	Vite 8
Canvas	Konva.js / react-konva
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4
Backend	Python 3.11+
Video processing	FFmpeg 6+ via ffmpeg-python
Image processing	OpenCV-contrib (cv2) + NumPy
Schema validation	Pydantic v2
Parallelism	Python multiprocessing.Pool

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Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-feature
3. Run tests before committing: npm run test:backend and cd renderer && npm run test:run
4. Open a pull request with a clear description of the change

Please follow existing code style. New Python code should pass ruff linting. New TypeScript should have no tsc errors.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE for the full text.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 cpanda

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

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Acknowledgements

• OpenCV — computer vision library powering all removal algorithms
• FFmpeg — video demuxing, frame extraction, and reassembly
• Electron — cross-platform desktop shell
• Konva.js — interactive canvas for the ROI selector