The four canonical stamp styles, and when to use each
- 90s Digicam (orange)— the default. Use for any photo where you want the "late 90s / early 2000s" feel. Matches photos shot in casual settings: parties, road trips, family events.
- Red LED— the clock-radio aesthetic. Use for night photos, especially anything that reads as "late night" or "going out." The red glow feels intentional.
- Mechanical Pen— handwritten on the photo's edge. Best for Polaroid-framed photos where the date feels written on the white border. More personal, less mass-produced.
- Modern Minimal— clean white text in a sans-serif font. Use for wedding photos, professional portraits, or any context where the orange would clash with the photo's formality.
Where to place the stamp
Real digicams burned the stamp into the bottom-right corner because that's where the camera's firmware put it. Replicating that placement gives the most authentic 90s feel. But other corners work for different reads:
- Bottom-right — canonical, most authentic.
- Bottom-left— slightly "art photo" feel, less common in the era.
- Top-right — feels like a magazine cover date.
- Top-left— rarely used historically, looks intentional rather than "the camera did it."
What makes a date stamp feel real vs. fake
Three details separate an authentic-feeling stamp from one that looks slapped on:
- Color. The orange has to be the right shade — desaturated, not neon. Around #ff7e1a. Brighter orange or pure red looks fake.
- Font.Seven-segment LCD font (the calculator style). Sans-serif modern fonts in orange don't read as digicam — they read as graphic design.
- Size.Real stamps were small — about 3-4 percent of the photo's height. Oversized stamps look like watermarks, not authentic.
PixMojo bakes all three details into the 90s Digicam preset, so you don't have to think about them.