How to add a watermark to a PDF — text, image, your choice

Watermarks are the polite way to say "this document has a status." A DRAFT stamp tells the recipient not to act on it yet. A CONFIDENTIAL stamp tells them not to share it. A company logo in the corner gives the file an owner without needing to print a header on every page. None of these are revolutionary, but they do their job quietly — which is exactly what a watermark should do.

This guide covers how to add a watermark to a PDF in your browser, in about 60 seconds, with full control over what it looks like and where it goes.

The five choices that matter

Every watermark you add to a PDF is the answer to five questions. Most tools obscure these behind a wizard; the Add Watermark tool puts them on one panel:

• Text or image? Text watermarks ("DRAFT", "CONFIDENTIAL", your name) are fast and look intentional. Image watermarks (your logo, a stamp graphic) carry brand identity.
• What opacity? Strong watermarks (50% and up) make a statement; subtle ones (15–25%) sit out of the way of the underlying text. Pick the one that matches your intent.
• Where on the page? Nine positions: corners, edges, center. Center is the most "watermark-y"; corners are the most "noted-and-filed".
• Tiled or single? A single watermark is direct: one statement per page. A tiled watermark covers the page diagonally — what you want when you're trying to make the document hard to crop into something usable.
• All pages or a range? Sometimes only the cover page should be stamped; sometimes every page. Pick the range.

The 60-second method

1. Open the Add Watermark tool. Drag your PDF onto the page. Your file stays on your device.
2. Choose Text or Image at the top of the right-side panel. For Text, type the words and pick a color and size. For Image, pick a PNG or JPG and a width.
3. Tune the look. Drag the Opacity slider until it feels right. Set a rotation if you want it diagonal (45° is the classic look). Tick "Tile diagonally" if you want a repeating pattern.
4. Pick a position. Tap one of the nine cells in the position grid. If "Tile" is on, the position is ignored.
5. (Optional) Limit to a page range. Tick the box and enter from/to pages.
6. Click Save & download. The watermark bakes into every selected page. It survives in any reader and prints exactly as you see it.

The live preview on the left updates as you tweak. You're seeing the actual output, not an approximation.

Choosing text content

Words that work well as watermarks tend to share three traits: short (1–2 words), uppercase, and meaningful at a glance. Some classics:

• DRAFT — pre-finalisation, not for forwarding.
• CONFIDENTIAL — handle carefully.
• COPY — original is elsewhere.
• SAMPLE — placeholder or template.
• NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION — narrower than CONFIDENTIAL.

For internal-only documents, your team or company name works too. Avoid full sentences — they're hard to read at watermark opacity.

Choosing image content

If you're using a logo, two things matter most:

• PNG with a transparent background, please. A JPG logo has a white box around it that will fight your page color. PNG with transparency reads clean over anything.
• Square or wide? A square logo works in any of the nine positions. A wide one is best in the corners and edges. Avoid putting a wide logo in center unless you want it dominant.

Width is in PDF points (1pt = 1/72"). For a typical A4 page, a logo width of 100–200 pt feels right; smaller in corners, larger in center.

Tiling that does the job

A tiled watermark — the kind that repeats across the page diagonally — has one job: make the page useless as a free-floating screenshot. If a recipient screenshots a small region, the watermark text is in the region too; their crop reveals nothing usable.

The classic configuration: a short word (DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL) at low opacity (15–20%), rotated 30°. Cover spacing handles itself; the tool spaces tiles ~1.5× the watermark's larger dimension so it's noticeable but not solid.

Frequently asked questions

Does the watermark survive when the recipient prints?

Yes. It's part of the page content, not a reader-side annotation. Whatever they see on screen is what comes out of the printer.

Can I have a different watermark on each page?

The current tool applies one watermark configuration per save. To have different watermarks per page, save once with the first watermark, then re-open the result and watermark a different page range.

Will the watermark prevent the recipient from extracting text underneath?

No. The watermark is drawn on top; the underlying text is unchanged. If you need to truly hide content, use the Redact PDF tool — that's a different operation that genuinely removes content.

Are my files uploaded?

No. The watermarking happens entirely in your browser tab using pdf-lib running on WebAssembly. Verifiable in DevTools → Network.

Can the recipient remove the watermark?

If the watermark is text and they have the right tool, sometimes yes. Our companion Remove Watermark tool is honest about which kinds of watermarks come off cleanly and which don't. If you want a watermark that can't be removed, save with rotation, tiling, and overlap with the page content — these traits make automatic removal much less reliable.

What's the largest PDF I can watermark?

Limited by your device memory. We've tested 100-page PDFs at typical content density without issue. For documents with embedded videos or hundreds of high-resolution images, watch your browser's memory monitor.

Can I use a custom font?

Currently the tool uses Helvetica (regular or bold) — the standard sans-serif font baked into every PDF reader. Custom fonts add complexity and file size; we'll add them when there's clear demand.

The short version

Five controls (source, opacity, position, rotation, tiling), one page-range picker, one save button. Watermark bakes into the PDF so it works in any reader and prints clean. Open the Add Watermark tool when a document needs a status, a stamp, or an owner.