Why did the watermark tool widen the gap between my repeated marks by itself?
Because the pattern you asked for needs more than 4000 marks, the most the tool accepts in repeat mode so the image can still be drawn on your device. When that happens it widens the step between marks by 25% at a time until the count drops under the cap, and shows a note saying so. If you dislike the result, make the mark bigger rather than the gap smaller.
When exactly this happens
The number of marks depends on three things: the photo size, the size of the mark's box and the space between repeats. The smallest size the tool allows is 5% of the image width, but height is usually what tips it over. A long line such as your shop name plus phone number plus website, squeezed into 5% of the width, comes out with tiny letters and a thin box, so the rows stack up in their hundreds.
A 4000 × 3000 camera photo and a long line at size 5%, so 200 px wide, and say only 12 px tall, with spacing at 0.
That pattern would need 5544 marks, over the cap, so the tool widens the step once, by 25%, and ends at 3300 marks.
The same settings with 60% spacing need only 2041 marks: no widening and no note.
Why is there a cap at all?
Every mark is drawn onto the full-resolution photo inside your browser; nothing is sent to a server. Thousands of marks on a photo of tens of megapixels is heavy work for a phone or a modest laptop, and the browser can freeze or the download can fail. The cap protects you from that, and the note tells you that what you see is not exactly what you asked for.
A pattern packed that tightly does not help you anyway: on a product photo it turns into a grey layer over everything, and nobody can read letters that small.
What to do instead
- Raise the size: a wider and taller mark means fewer rows, which works better than shrinking the gap.
- Shorten the text: the shop name alone comes out with bigger letters than name, number and website on one line at the same size.
- Raise 'Space between repeats' to 40% or more and watch whether the note goes away.
- If you really want a dense pattern, accept the automatic widening; the result still covers the whole photo.
Will the download differ from the preview?
The preview in the Image watermark editor tool is drawn on a reduced copy and the download from the original. But every setting is a share of the width, so the pattern and the number of marks are close in both. If the note appears in the preview, expect the same widened pattern in the downloaded file.
Common questions
Can I raise the cap above 4000?
No, it is fixed in the tool.
Does this happen with a single mark?
No, the cap only applies to 'Repeat across the image'.
Does widening change the size of the mark itself?
No. The mark stays at the size you chose; only the step between marks changes.