Put a watermark on the pages of a PDF
CONFIDENTIAL across a contract draft, a logo on a price list, DRAFT on a report that is not final: a watermark tells readers what a document is before they read a word of it. This page stamps text or an image on the pages you choose, in your browser, and shows each page with the stamp before you save.
The stamp is a semi-transparent picture drawn on top of the page. Your original file is not changed.
Adding a watermark in six steps
- Drop the PDF onto the drop zone or choose it. If the file is protected, enter its password so the tool can read the pages.
- Choose Text or Image. For text, type the words, pick a font and a color. For an image, choose a PNG; one with a transparent background looks best.
- Set the Size as a share of the page width, the Opacity (30% is a good start) and the Rotation. At 45° the stamp runs from the bottom left to the top right of the page; at 0° it lies flat.
- Pick the Layout: one stamp in the middle, or tiles over the whole page with a slider for the space between them.
- Type the pages to stamp, for example
1-3, 5, 8-, or leave the field empty for all pages. Use the arrows in the preview to look at other pages. - Press Add watermark and save PDF, then Download PDF.
How the stamp gets onto the page
Text is turned into a picture with the fonts on your device, so any alphabet works, from Polish to Cyrillic. The price is that the watermark text cannot be selected or searched later. The picture is drawn on top of the existing content with the opacity you chose, so text underneath stays readable at a low value.
Pages that are stored turned get the stamp at the same place and angle you see in the preview. In the tiled layout every other row is shifted by half a tile, and the tool draws at most 300 tiles per page, so a very small stamp with a tiny gap is spaced out automatically.
What a watermark cannot do
- It sits on top of the page, not behind the text and images. The tool cannot put it underneath.
- It is not protection. Anyone with a PDF editor can cover or remove a watermark. The tool does not encrypt the file either.
- Uploaded images are scaled to at most 1,600 pixels wide. PNG and WebP keep their transparency, while a JPG keeps its solid background.
- A PDF may be up to 300 MB and 2,000 pages.
- The font list is short on purpose: the three families use fonts that your system already has.
Where watermarks earn their keep
Drafts and proofs that must not be mistaken for final versions. Copies for a third party with their name tiled over every page, so a leak can be traced. A logo in the corner of a handout. A photographer's proof sheet. Whenever the label should be unmissable, a diagonal stamp at 25 to 40% opacity does the job without hiding the text.
Where your file stays
On your device. The PDF is read and written in the page, the stamp is drawn on a canvas, and no request is sent while you work. The Network panel of your developer tools shows that. The finished file reaches you as a normal browser download.