What does this tool do?
It stamps a piece of text — DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, PAID, your company name, anything — across every page of a PDF. You control the wording, size, colour, opacity and whether the text runs diagonally or straight across the middle. The watermark is drawn into the page content itself, so it shows up in every viewer, in print, and in screenshots of the document.
How to watermark a PDF
- Add your PDF using the upload box.
- Type the watermark text and pick a style: diagonal is the classic across-the-page look; horizontal sits level in the centre.
- Adjust size, colour and opacity — semi-transparent grey or red are the usual choices, letting the underlying text stay readable.
- Apply, check the summary, and download the watermarked copy.
Why watermark?
A watermark answers the "what is this copy?" question before anyone has to ask. DRAFT stops an unfinished report being mistaken for final. CONFIDENTIAL sets expectations before a document is forwarded. SAMPLE and PAID mark invoices in the right state. A name or company watermark discourages a shared document from wandering — copies carry their origin with them. None of this is cryptographic protection, but it's visible, unavoidable context on every page.
How it works — and one honest caveat
The watermark is drawn by a PDF library running in your browser: the text is placed over each page's existing content with the transparency you chose, then the file is re-saved locally. Nothing is uploaded. The caveat: like any standard PDF watermark, it's a graphical layer, and someone with editing tools and determination can remove it. Treat it as labelling, not security — for actual protection, pair it with the Protect PDF tool's password encryption.
Tips
- Around 30–40% opacity keeps the watermark obvious without hurting readability.
- Long text auto-scales down to fit the page diagonal; short words like DRAFT come out big and bold.
- Watermark before you sign: some viewers flag any post-signature change to a signed document.