How to add a watermark to a PDF
Updated
Contents
To add a watermark to a PDF, open Add Watermark, add your file, type your text or pick a PNG or JPEG picture, choose where it goes, and press Add watermark. The download is a copy of your PDF with the mark drawn on every page you chose.
By default the mark is the word CONFIDENTIAL, set diagonally in the middle of every page. The position grid moves it to any of 9 spots, Tile across the page repeats it in rows, and Pages and layer limits it to the pages you list or puts it behind the page's content instead of over it.
The stamping runs in your browser tab, so your PDF and your picture stay on your device and no account is needed. Add Watermark takes one PDF at a time, up to 100 MB.
Step by step
- 1Open the Add Watermark tool and drop your PDF onto the box, or browse for it. The file stays on your device.
- 2In the Watermark section, replace CONFIDENTIAL in the Text field with your own wording, or switch the type to Image and add a PNG or JPEG.
- 3Under Appearance, set Opacity, Rotation and Max font size, and for text pick Helvetica, Times, or Courier and a colour. A picture has Image size instead of Max font size.
- 4Under Placement, click one of the 9 cells, or tick Tile across the page to repeat the mark across each page.
- 5To stamp only some pages, open Pages and layer, choose Selected pages and type a list such as 1-3, 5. Choose Behind content there to draw the mark under the page's text and pictures.
- 6Press Add watermark, then Download watermarked PDF. The copy is named after yours, with -watermarked added.
A text watermark or a logo
A text mark is real text drawn into each page. Western European text, accents included, is set in the font you pick (Helvetica, Times, or Courier); letters beyond that set, and many other scripts, make the page fetch a matching Noto font from pdf.xyz first, drawn in its regular weight. Right-to-left scripts are refused with a message rather than stamped with their letters reversed.
A picture mark takes a PNG or a JPEG, such as your logo. Image size sets its width as a share of the page width, and Opacity lets the page show through it, so a small logo in a bottom corner at low opacity brands every page without covering the text.
Position, tiling and pages
The position grid has 9 cells: the four corners, the middle of each edge, and the centre. Tile across the page repeats the mark in rows over the whole page, drawing only copies that fit whole, so a smaller size gives you more of them.
Each page is measured on its own, so in a document that mixes portrait and landscape sheets, each mark lands where it should on its page. Max font size and Image size are upper limits: on a page too small for the mark, it is drawn at the largest size that fits, and the result panel says on how many pages that happened.
Selected pages takes a list such as 1-3, 5, or an open range such as 4- for page 4 to the end. The pages you leave out are not changed.
For a line of text along the top or bottom edge of every page, PDF Header & Footer is made for that, and Add Page Numbers numbers the pages.
Over or behind the content
Over content, the default, draws the mark on top of the page. Behind content draws it first, so the page's own text and pictures sit on top of it and stay fully readable.
Anything opaque hides a mark drawn behind it. A scanned page is one picture covering the sheet, so a mark behind it disappears; on scans, keep Over content and lower the Opacity instead.
Common questions
Can I watermark only some pages?
Yes. Open Pages and layer, choose Selected pages, and type the pages as a list such as 1-3, 5, or 4- for page 4 to the end. Only those pages are stamped; the rest are left as they were.
Can I use my logo as a watermark?
Yes. Switch the Watermark type to Image and add a PNG or JPEG. Image size sets how wide it is as a share of the page, Opacity how faint, and the position grid or Tile across the page where it goes.
Can someone remove the watermark?
Not with a viewer's switch: the mark is written into the page content, not added as a comment or an optional layer. But a text mark is selectable text, and a PDF editor can delete text or a picture from a page, so treat a watermark as a label and a deterrent, not as protection.
Why did my watermark come out smaller than I set?
Max font size and Image size are ceilings. On a page too small for the mark at that size, it is drawn at the largest size that fits on the part of the page a reader sees, and the result panel tells you on how many pages that happened. For a larger text mark, shorten the text.
Is my PDF sent anywhere when I add a watermark?
No. Add Watermark stamps the PDF inside your browser tab, so the PDF and any picture you add stay on your device. The only thing the page may fetch is a Noto font from pdf.xyz, when your text needs one; that request carries nothing from your document.