Type the words you want, such as DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL or a client name, choose where they go, and download the PDF with the watermark on every page or only the pages you pick. The text is set in a heavy grey type, sized automatically to suit each page.
You control how strong it looks. Opacity runs from a barely visible 5 percent up to solid, the angle from flat to 90 degrees either way, and the text can sit in the middle of the page, repeat across it in a tiled pattern, or run along the top or bottom edge like a header.
The watermark is added as real text, not as a picture pasted over the page, so the document stays sharp at any zoom level and the file grows by only a few kilobytes. Landscape and rotated pages are handled too: the watermark is placed on the page as you see it, not as it happens to be stored.
How to watermark PDF
- Add your PDF. Drop it on the box above or tap to choose it. One file at a time, up to 100 MB.
- Write the watermark. Up to 60 characters. Short words in capitals, like DRAFT or COPY, read best at an angle.
- Set the look. Pick a position, an opacity and an angle, and whether the watermark sits over or behind the page content.
- Watermark and download. Leave the pages box empty to mark every page, or enter ranges such as 2-5 to mark only those.
Over or behind the page
Over the page content is the default and the safe choice. The watermark is drawn last, on top of everything, so it is always visible. At the default 25 percent opacity the text underneath stays easy to read.
Behind the page content draws the watermark first, so the page is printed over it, the way a watermark in good paper sits behind the ink. It looks cleaner on documents made in a word processor, where the background is empty and only the text overlaps.
It does not work on scanned pages. A scan is one large picture covering the whole page, so anything behind it is hidden completely. If your watermark disappears, that is why. Switch back to drawing it over the content.
Choosing a position
Centred puts one large watermark across the middle of each page, scaled so the whole phrase fits at the angle you chose. It is the classic look for drafts and review copies.
Tiled repeats the text in a staggered grid across the whole page. It is harder to crop out, which is why it is common on documents shared with people outside a business, such as identity documents sent for verification. A name and date, for example “For ABC Bank only, 3 Oct”, is the usual wording.
Top and bottom place a single horizontal line along that edge, like a running header. The angle setting does not apply to these two. They suit notices such as “Internal use only” that should not cover the content at all.
What a watermark can and cannot do
A watermark marks a document. It tells readers what status the document has and, if the text says so, who it was given to. That is usually enough to discourage casual forwarding.
It is not a lock. Because the watermark is real text, someone with a full PDF editor and enough patience can select it and delete it. Treat it as a label, not as security, and keep sensitive documents protected in other ways as well.
Latin characters only, for now. The watermark font covers English and Western European letters, numbers and common punctuation. Text in other scripts, such as Chinese or Arabic, cannot be drawn yet, and you will be told rather than given a page of empty boxes.
Questions people actually ask
How do I add a CONFIDENTIAL watermark to a PDF?
Type CONFIDENTIAL in the watermark text box, which is already filled in that way, leave the position on Centred and the angle on 45 degrees, and press Watermark PDF. Every page gets a large grey diagonal mark at 25 percent opacity, which is light enough to read the page underneath.
Can I watermark only some pages?
Yes. Type the pages into the pages box, for example 1 to mark only the cover, or 2-10 to skip it. Separate ranges with commas, such as 1, 4-6. Leave the box empty and every page in the document is marked. Count pages from the start of the file.
Why can I not see my watermark?
If you chose to draw it behind the page content, a scanned page hides it, because the scan is a picture covering the whole page. Draw it over the content instead. At very low opacity, around 5 percent, the mark is also faint enough to miss on a bright screen.
Can someone remove the watermark?
With effort, yes. The watermark is added as text, which keeps the document sharp and small, but a full PDF editor can select and delete it page by page. A tiled watermark takes far longer to remove than a single centred one, which is why it is popular for documents sent to third parties.
Does adding a watermark make the PDF bigger?
Barely. The watermark uses one of the standard fonts every PDF reader already includes, so no font is added to the file, and each page only gains a few lines of drawing instructions. A tiled watermark adds a little more, usually a few kilobytes per page.