Add Watermark

Stamp a text or image watermark on your pages.

Runs in your browser

Runs in your browser — your file never leaves your device.

Drop your PDF here, or browseOne PDF · watermark applied locally in your browser

About this tool

Stamp a text or image watermark on a PDF in your browser: place it anywhere or tile it, on the pages you pick, with opacity, angle, font and color. No upload.

This tool processes files entirely on your device. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

More details

Add Watermark stamps a line of text or a picture on the pages of a PDF: CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, a recipient's name, or your logo as a PNG or JPEG. The Text field starts with CONFIDENTIAL typed in, and switching the Watermark type to Image takes a picture instead. Opacity, Rotation and Max font size sliders shape a text mark, which can be set in Helvetica, Times, and Courier and in Gray, Red, Blue or a Custom color; for a picture, the Image size slider replaces Max font size. By default the mark sits 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 picks which pages get it and whether it goes over or behind the page's content. Each page is measured on its own, so in a document mixing portrait and landscape sheets every mark lands where it should on its page, and on pages saved with a rotation flag the angle is corrected so the diagonal leans the same way as on upright pages.

Your browser does the stamping, using pdf-lib, and the PDF and the picture never leave the tab. Western European text, accents like é and ü included, is set in the font you pick, one built into the PDF format. Letters outside that set, such as a Polish Ł, and Bengali, Greek, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese text first make the page download the matching Noto typeface, served by pdf.xyz: the font travels to you, the document stays put. Arabic and Hebrew stop the run with an error that lists the characters, rather than being stamped with the letters in reverse order. The page takes a single PDF of up to 100 MB at a time, and a password-protected one has to go through Unlock PDF before it will open here.

The mark is real text, or an embedded picture, drawn into each page's content: over it by default, or under it with Behind content, where anything opaque on the page covers it. Page order and rotation, the title and author, and fillable form fields with their typed values all come through, and the fields stay editable; a field's own box is drawn above the page, so a filled one can cover part of the mark. The saved copy names pdf.xyz as its producer and creator, and because the saved file is rebuilt around new page content, a digital signature on the original stops validating in the watermarked copy.

When to use it

Flag a working draft
Stamp DRAFT in red before a contract or proposal goes round for comments, so nobody files the unsigned version as the final one.
Put the recipient's name on their copy
Typing a line such as "Prepared for Northwind — do not forward" on every page tells the reader who the copy was meant for and makes a forwarded copy obvious at a glance.
Brand a report with your logo
Drop your logo as a PNG, set it small in the bottom-right corner at low opacity, and every page carries it without covering the text.
Share a readable sample
A course pack, report or design portfolio can go out marked SAMPLE at low opacity, tiled across each page: prospective buyers can read every page, but a clean copy is not what they receive.
Label HR and finance paperwork without handing it over
Payslips, offer letters and board packs are files you would rather not upload anywhere. The stamping runs in the tab, so marking them CONFIDENTIAL does not cost you the confidentiality.

What this tool can do

Colors: Gray, red, blue or any custom color for watermark text, in Helvetica, Times or Courier — or a PNG or JPEG image instead.
Placement: Diagonal across the middle by default; any of 9 positions, or tiled in rows across the page, on every page or only the ones you list.

How it works

1Choose your PDF
Drag one PDF onto the dashed box that says "Drop your PDF here, or browse"; clicking its browse link opens a file picker instead. When it has been read, the file name, page count and file size appear in a bar above the Watermark section.
2Type the text or pick a picture
In the Watermark section, replace CONFIDENTIAL in the Text field with your own wording, or switch to Image and drop a PNG or JPEG. Add watermark cannot be pressed while the text is empty or holds only spaces, or while no picture is chosen.
3Set the appearance
Under Appearance, drag Opacity for how faint the mark is, Rotation for its angle (positive runs uphill from lower left, negative runs downhill, zero lies flat) and Max font size in points, the largest size used (a page too small for it gets the largest size that fits). A picture has Image size instead: its width as a share of the page width, also shrunk where it would not fit. For text, pick Helvetica, Times, or Courier, and Gray, Red, Blue or Custom for any color.
4Place it
Under Placement, click one of the 9 cells, or tick Tile across the page to repeat the mark in rows; only copies that fit whole on the page are drawn, so a smaller size gives more of them. Pages and layer opens two more choices: Selected pages takes a list such as 1-3, 5, and Behind content draws the mark under the page's content instead of over it.
5Stamp and download
Press Add watermark. The result panel shows how many pages were stamped and the new size; Download watermarked PDF saves a copy with -watermarked added to the name.

Common questions

Can I watermark only some pages, or move the mark off-center?

Yes. Open Pages and layer, choose Selected pages and type them as 1-3, 5, or 4- for page 4 to the end; the other pages are left as they were. The position grid puts the mark in a corner, along an edge or in the middle, and Tile across the page repeats it over the whole page. For a line of text along the top or bottom edge, Header & Footer is made for that.

What does Behind content do?

It draws the mark before the page's own text and pictures, so they sit on top of it and stay fully readable. Anything opaque hides it, though: on a scanned page, which is one picture covering the sheet, or a page with a filled background, the mark disappears. There, keep Over content and lower the Opacity instead.

Can someone remove the watermark?

Not by switching it off: it is written into the page content, not added as an optional layer or a comment, so a viewer's toggle cannot hide it. But a text mark is selectable text, and an editor that edits page content can delete it or a picture: treat a watermark as a label and a deterrent, not protection.

Which languages can the watermark text be in?

Plain Western European text, extended Latin, plus Bengali, Greek, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. The Font choice applies to plain Western text; anything beyond it is drawn from a downloaded Noto font in its regular weight, so it is not bold like a Western mark. Arabic and Hebrew are refused because lines are set left to right. Thai and other scripts with no shipped font are refused too, and one line cannot mix two downloaded faces, such as Bengali with Chinese.

Why is my watermark smaller than I set, or cut off?

It should not be cut off. Max font size and Image size are upper limits: on a page too small for the mark at that size, it is drawn at the largest size whose tilted outline spans no more than 90% of the visible page, and it is placed on the part of the page a reader sees, including a page trimmed with Crop PDF. Tiled, each copy is held to 50% of the page instead, so the rows have room to repeat. The result panel says on how many pages it was shrunk. For a larger text mark, shorten the text. There is no preview: to try other settings, press Back to adjust after a run, and the options come back as you left them with the same file still loaded.

Does Add Watermark work offline?

Not fully. The page and its processing engine load over the network, and parts of the engine are fetched the first time a step needs them. The processing itself runs on your device. Drawing text in a script outside the Western European alphabet downloads a matching font from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection.

How large can my file be?

Up to 100 MB per file.

Can I use an image or logo as the watermark?

Yes: switch the Watermark type to Image and drop a PNG or JPEG. Image size sets its width as a share of the page width, and it takes the same opacity, angle, position and tiling as text. For a full letterhead kept as a PDF, Overlay PDF draws a page of that PDF on each of yours instead.