Add Watermark to PDF
Stamp text like DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL, or place your own logo, across every page. Control the opacity, angle, position and whether the mark sits over or behind your content.
Drop your PDF here to add a watermark
or click to browse. Watermark several files at once. Nothing is uploaded.
What is a PDF watermark?
A PDF watermark is text or an image laid over every page of a document to say something about its status or ownership. The familiar examples are a pale diagonal DRAFT across a proposal, CONFIDENTIAL on a document that should not circulate, a SAMPLE stamp on a preview copy, or a company logo sitting faintly behind the text of a report.
Watermarks work because they travel with the file. A note in a covering email is gone the moment the PDF is forwarded or printed, whereas a watermark is part of every page and follows the document wherever it goes. That makes it the simplest way to stop a draft being mistaken for a final version, or an internal document being circulated without its status being obvious.
This tool adds both kinds. Type your own text or pick a preset, or upload a PNG or JPG logo, then control the opacity, angle, size, position and colour. You can place a single mark anywhere on the page or repeat it across the whole sheet, and choose whether it sits over your content or behind it. A live preview renders the actual output, so what you see is exactly what downloads. Everything runs in your browser and no file is ever uploaded.
How to add a watermark to a PDF
- Upload your PDF: Drag one or more PDFs into the drop area, or click to browse. Every file in the queue gets the same watermark, so you can brand a whole batch in one pass.
- Choose text or a logo: Select Text to type your own wording, or use a preset such as DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL. Select Logo to upload a PNG or JPG image. A PNG with a transparent background gives the cleanest result.
- Style the watermark: Set the font, colour and size for text, or the width for a logo. Then adjust the opacity and angle. Around 30 percent opacity at 45 degrees is the classic look and keeps the underlying text readable.
- Position it or repeat it: Pick one of nine positions for a single mark, or turn on Repeat across the whole page to tile it and adjust the spacing between copies.
- Choose the layer and pages: Over the content is the standard choice and keeps the mark clearly visible. Behind the content tucks it under the text, which suits a background logo. Leave the pages field empty for every page, or enter a range such as 1-3, 7.
- Check the preview and download: The preview shows page one with the watermark actually applied. When it looks right, click Add Watermark and download your files individually or together as a zip archive.
Over the content or behind it?
Over the content draws the watermark on top of everything already on the page. This is the right choice for status marks such as DRAFT, SAMPLE or CONFIDENTIAL, because the whole point is that the mark cannot be missed or cropped out. Because the mark is drawn straight onto the existing pages, everything else in the document survives untouched, including links, bookmarks and form fields.
Behind the content places the watermark underneath, so body text always sits cleanly on top of it. This suits a background logo or a subtle brand mark where readability of the document matters more than the prominence of the watermark. A PDF page can only be added to rather than drawn under, so this option rebuilds each page with your original content layered on top of the mark.
If you are unsure, start with Over the content at a low opacity. It gives the visibility you want without ever obscuring a sentence.
Getting the opacity and angle right
A watermark has to be noticed without making the document hard to read, and opacity is the main lever. Below about 15 percent a mark is easy to overlook, especially in print. Above about 50 percent it starts competing with your text. For most documents 25 to 35 percent is the sweet spot, and a mid grey reads more gracefully over mixed content than a saturated colour.
The 45 degree diagonal is conventional for a reason. It crosses the page's natural reading lines, which makes it read as an overlay rather than as part of the document, and it gives a long word like CONFIDENTIAL room to span a portrait page. Zero degrees suits a small mark in a corner or a footer, and steep negative angles work well for a logo running up the side of a page.
Tiling changes the calculation. When a mark repeats across the whole sheet, drop the opacity to 10 to 20 percent and reduce the font size, because the cumulative visual weight of many copies is far greater than one.
What a watermark does and does not protect
A watermark is a clear, visible statement about a document's status, and for everyday business use that is genuinely valuable. It stops an old draft being quoted as final, makes an internal document obviously internal even after it has been printed and photocopied, and puts your branding on every page of anything you distribute.
It is not a security control. Anyone with PDF editing software can remove a watermark, and a mark drawn over content does not prevent that content being copied, extracted or printed. If your goal is to control who can open a document, encrypt it with a password. If your goal is to stop values in a filled form being altered, flatten it. Watermarking answers the question of what a document is, not the question of who may use it, and it is often worth combining with one of the others.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is this watermark tool free?
Yes, completely free with no account, no page limits and no watermark of our own added to your file. The only mark on your document is the one you choose.
Are my PDFs uploaded to a server?
No. The watermark is applied entirely inside your browser, so confidential documents, which are exactly the kind of files people watermark, never leave your device.
Can I use my company logo as the watermark?
Yes. Switch to Logo and upload a PNG or JPG. A PNG with a transparent background works best because the surrounding area stays clear instead of showing a white box. Use the width slider to size it against the page, and the opacity slider to set how strongly it shows.
Will the watermark appear on every page?
By default yes, every page is marked. If you only want certain pages, enter a range in the pages field such as 1-3, 7, 12- and the rest of the document is left untouched.
Can I remove a watermark later?
Not from the file this tool produces, because the mark is drawn into the page content rather than kept as a separate removable layer. That is what makes it durable. Always keep your unwatermarked original, since it is the only clean copy you will have.
Does watermarking reduce the quality of my PDF?
No. Text watermarks are drawn as real vector text and logos are embedded at their original resolution, so nothing is re-photographed and existing pages stay exactly as sharp as they were.
Why does my watermark look too strong when tiled?
Many copies of a mark add up to far more visual weight than a single one. When you turn on tiling, drop the opacity to around 10 to 20 percent and reduce the font size, then increase the spacing until the page reads comfortably again.
Does it work on landscape and rotated pages?
Yes. Pages carrying a rotation flag, which is common in scanned documents and mixed-orientation reports, are handled so the watermark appears where you expect it and reads the right way up rather than sideways.
Can I watermark several PDFs at once?
Yes. Add as many files as you like and they all receive the same watermark settings. A single file downloads as a PDF and a batch downloads as one zip archive.
Can I watermark a password protected PDF?
Not while it is encrypted. Remove the password first with our Unlock PDF tool, add the watermark, then protect the file again if you still need it encrypted.
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