Date is very important information of photographs. Have you ever wanted to capture photos with date & time displayed on them or add time stamps to photos saved in iPhone Camera Roll? In order to date some old photos, we have tried several photo editors and date & time stamp apps. Most of them involve too many steps applying, editing date and time stamps. In this article we will share with you several ways to add date and time stamp to photos with or without third-party apps on iPhone.
Contents
- Method 1. Manually add date/time to existing photos
- Step 1. Find out date, time a photo was taken
- Step 2. Duplicate the photos
- Step 3. Add date, time to photo
- Method 2. Take photos with date and time
- Method 3. Add date & time stamp to existing photos
Method 1. Manually add date/time to existing photos on iPhone
You can choose to manually stamp on photos without any third-party timestamp apps or photo editors on iPhone. As you may have already noticed that in some apps on iPhone, iPad, such as the Mail, Messages, Photos, Files, you can use the Markup tool to edit screenshots, photos even PDF documents. Markup is a built-in image editing feature on iPhone and iPad. It allows you to draw on photos or PDFs, add text, shapes, signature to documents.
Step 1. Find out date, time a photo was taken
Open the Photos app on your iPhone. Open the album to find the photo which you like to add date to, Tap to enlarge the photo, you can then see the date and time on the top.
You can also tap on the Info icon (i inside a circle) at the bottom to bring up the file information dialog as the lower section of the screen.
Long press on the date & time, then choose Copy Date & Time from the popup-up dialog.
Step 2. Duplicate the photo – optional but highly recommended
Other than modify the original photo with the Markup tool, you can create a copy of it and edit its copy instead. In case, anything goes wrong with the editing, you won’t lose the original photos.
In the Photos app, open the photo you like to edit, then tap on the More menu button at the top right corner, choose Duplicate from the menu, a duplicate copy appears next to the original in your library. Or you can find it in the Recents album. Scroll down to the very bottom, the last photo in Recents is the duplicate copy.
Step 3. Add date, time to photo on iPhone
Open the duplicate copy in Photos, tap Edit at the upper right corner, than tap the Markup button (nib inside a circle) in the upper right section.
Tap the Add button to expand the menu with options to add Description, Text, Signature, Magnifier, shapes and more.
Choose Text, then select the text above the photo, paste the date and time or manually type in them if you have not copied them to the clipboard.
You can adjust the font, size, alignment, color of the date and time on the photo. Want to change the location of the time stamp? Simply drag and drop the date and time stamp to anywhere on the photo as you wish. Finally tap Done to save the change. Now you have the photo stamped on iPhone.
Method 2. Take photos with date and time using iPhone
If you are looking for a fast way to add date/time stamps to photos on iPhone, we recommend TimeStamp Camera app. It is free to download and use, without watermarks, with less ads but not those annoying full screen popup ads. Advanced users can pay an one-time fee through in-app purchase to unlock all features, remove advertisements forever. While most other camera apps, photo editors, photo stamp apps require a fee to download, need to view video ads in order to remove watermark, or can’t hide watermark without subscribing, display annoying ads.
Run it on your iPhone and grant it the permissions to access your Camera and Photos, use your location, access microphone. This app can add location information to photos and videos. Once the app gets the GPS and address information, it will display it on the camera preview in real time. Location information is also added to photo and video when taking photo or video. So if you need to put on GPS info on your photos and videos, choose Allow While Using App. Also this app can record video, if you want to record the sound information while recording video, you need to allow the microphone permissions. The app will use the microphone when you record a video with audio. Of course, it also allows users to record muted videos.
See how you can shoot pictures with date and time display on them below.
When you open the Stamp Camera app on iPhone, it will open your iPhone camera automatically. You can see the current date & time stamp being displayed in the preview, simply press the shutter button to take a picture with the date and time on it. Open the Camera Roll or Photos app to find the captured photo.
You can tap on the clock icon to reveal more options to customize the display and format of the date, time, GPS info, maps, altitude and more information on the photo.
Switch from the Format to Position, Font, Input and Opacity for greater customisations to the photo stamps.
Method 3. Add date and time stamp to existing photos on iPhone
The basic version of above Timestamp Camera app can help users add current date and time to existing photos. However you need to upgrade to the pro version in order to time stamp on existing photos and videos.
As we have already specified above, iPhone users can make use of the built-in markup tool in iOS to easily add text, date & time stamp on existing photos. It is not as easy as the above date & time stamp app, but you do not need to download extra apps and you have greater freedom to customize the date stamp on the photos. Other than that, we’d like to introduce another date and time stamp app for iPhone iPad which makes the process more straightforward.
Timestamp It is a free photo stamper for iPhone iPad. You can use this app to add a timestamp, a date stamp, and/or a caption to your photos for free. Using the free version of this stamp app, you can select and stamp up to 3 different photos at once. It is ads-supported, you will see ads showing up in a very narrow bar at the bottom, not annoying though. Best of all, it won’t impose any watermark on your photos.
Run the Photo Stamper app on iPhone, choose the album where the photo you need to stamp on is saved. Once you select a photo, you will see the stamp option titled Tap here to stamp this item at the bottom.
Tap on the clock icon in the upper right corner to edit the date & time, change the color. You can drag and drop the date & time stamp on the photo to relocate it, pinch to zoom it. Tap Stamp this media at the bottom. Unlike other date stamp apps, this photo stamp app will not modify the original photos. Instead those stamped photos will be saved to your Photos as new photos.
Update Oct 2022: this post was originally published in Apr 2018; added manual stamps on photos; added two new photo stamper apps to replace the old time stamp app since it is not available in App Store any more.
Totally cheap Phone. I take pics of everything for insurance purposes. After my new basement flooded I realize no date on original pics. Now insurance will use this to not pay. You are tooo expensive to lack a time date stamp for pictures. WTH! Just venting because I know Apple couldn’t care less. Just sell sell sell. Why does the iPhone have to be so expensive at all. May Karma win the day.
Hey Kim, I’m just on this site cause I need to find out how to add a visible timestamp on my pics for schoolwork. However in your case, you can use metadata only to determine when you took the pictures. Metadata is stored with every picture you take, so date, time, and location– I’m not sure of the exact process on getting it, but I know you can access it. As long as you have the original copy of the picture you took on your phone, you should be set. Hopefully your insurance company will allow you to submit later.