Add a watermark to a PDF

What a watermark does

It draws your text across each page at the angle and opacity you set. CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, SAMPLE or a recipient's name all work. It marks the status or owner of a document while the page stays readable.

How to watermark a PDF

Drop the PDF above and type the watermark text. Set the opacity between 5 and 100 percent, the angle between 0 and 90 degrees and the font size between 16 and 120 points. The defaults give a faint grey stamp at 45 degrees. Press Add watermark and download the stamped copy. The text is centered on every page in bold Helvetica.

Adjust the look

Lower the opacity so the page shows through, around 15 to 25 percent for text documents. Use 0 degrees for a horizontal band or 45 for the classic diagonal stamp, and raise the size so a short word spans the page. Very long text at a large size can run past the page edges.

Page quality

The watermark is real text drawn on top of your pages, which stay intact underneath. It is vector text, so it stays sharp at any zoom. The original file is not changed.

Before you start

Input: PDF. Output: Watermarked PDF. The settings appear before anything runs, so you can check them first. Your original file is never changed.

If layout, notes, forms, signatures or fonts matter, check the new PDF page by page. A file that opens is not the same as a file that looks right.

Keep the original until you have opened and checked the result. The work happens in this browser tab, so the size you can handle depends on your device's memory, your browser and the file itself.

How to add a watermark to a PDF

1. Drop your PDF into the box above.
2. Type the watermark text and set the opacity, angle and size.
3. Press Add watermark. It runs in your browser.
4. Download the watermarked PDF.