Watermark a PDF
Stamp CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT or your own words across every page, once or repeated, at any angle and opacity.
Drop a PDF. The watermark is added over every page and the original content is untouched.
Your file is processed on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
What a watermark is for
Mostly, status. DRAFT stops a work in progress being mistaken for the final version. CONFIDENTIAL reminds everyone who handles a document how to treat it. SAMPLE or COPY marks a document that shouldn’t be used as an original. A name or company across the page makes it clear where a leaked copy came from, which discourages the leak in the first place.
Single stamp or repeated
A single diagonal stamp is the classic look and leaves most of the page clear. Repeating it across the page is harder to crop out of a screenshot and suits documents shared outside an organisation, such as proposals, price lists and review copies. Keep repeated watermarks lighter than single ones, because there is more of them.
Before you send it
Check the preview on a page with dense text. If the watermark crosses important figures, lower the opacity or change the angle rather than making it smaller, since a small watermark is easy to overlook. For the most robust result, convert the watermarked file withPDF to JPG and rebuild it withImage to PDF, so the stamp is part of the page itself.
Common questions
Can someone remove the watermark?
Someone determined and equipped with a PDF editor can, because the watermark is added as text on top of the page. It deters casual copying and makes a document’s status obvious. For a copy that genuinely can’t be cleaned, convert the watermarked pages to images, which flattens the watermark into the page and rebuild the PDF.
Does the watermark cover the text underneath?
It sits over the page at the opacity you choose, so the text remains readable through it. Around 15 to 25 percent is enough to be unmistakable without getting in the way. The words underneath also stay selectable and searchable.
Can I use a logo as the watermark?
This tool stamps text, which stays sharp at any zoom and adds almost nothing to the file size. For a logo, add it in the application that produced the PDF, which gives the cleanest result.
Why can I not use some characters?
The watermark uses the fonts built into every PDF reader, which cover Latin letters, numbers and common punctuation. Characters outside that set, such as Chinese, Arabic or emoji, would need a font embedded in the file and the tool tells you rather than producing a broken stamp.
Guides
The other tools
All of them work the same way: the file is read in your browser and never uploaded.