Add a Watermark

How it works

1. 1

   Open your PDF Select the file with Choose a file, or drag it into the dashed box. Every page then appears as a thumbnail under Page preview.

2. 2

   Write the text or pick an image In Text mode, replace the sample word in Watermark text with your own. In Image mode, press Upload an image and choose a PNG or JPG file.

3. 3

   Place and style it Click a spot on the Position grid: Center or one of the four corners. Then set Opacity and, for text, Font size, Rotation and Color.

4. 4

   Choose the pages Leave the Pages field empty to mark the whole file, or list pages with commas, for example 1-3, 5.

5. 5

   Apply and download Press Apply and download to save name_watermark.pdf. The "File ready" panel then lets you send it on to Compress PDF, Sign PDF, Protect or Merge PDF.

Settings for text and images

The Text and Image buttons at the top of Options switch between the two kinds of watermark. Opacity, Position and Pages work for both; Font size, Rotation, Color and the tiled pattern only show up in Text mode.

• • Font size: from 12 to 120, 48 by default. There is no font choice. Text in Western European Latin letters is set in Helvetica; text with other letters, such as Ł, ř, Cyrillic or Greek, is set in Noto Sans, which your browser downloads the first time it is needed.
• • Opacity: from 10 to 100 percent in steps of 10, 30 by default. The lower the value, the more the page shows through.
• • Rotation: from -90 to 90 degrees, -45 by default, for text only. Set it to 0 for a level line.
• • Color: any shade from the color picker, red by default, for text only.
• • Position: Center, Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right. For text, Tiled (mosaic) repeats the words over the whole page.

Using a logo or a picture

Image mode takes PNG and JPG files; other formats are refused with an error message, and so is an animated PNG, when you apply the watermark. The picture keeps its proportions and is placed at a fixed 50 percent scale, with no rotation and no size setting, so resize the file in an image editor first if it comes out too large or too small.

A PNG with a transparent background stays transparent, so only the logo itself shows on the page. Pictures are placed once per page, at the center or in a corner, since the tiled pattern is only offered for text.

Before you share the file

The Watermark preview box only gives a rough idea of a text watermark: it does not show where the mark will land, and the page thumbnails show the pages as you loaded them. Open name_watermark.pdf to check the result before sending it. A PDF protected by a password is not supported, even one that opens without asking for it: remove the protection first with Unlock PDF, if you know the password.

The tool saves a new copy and leaves your original PDF as it was. If the mark is too strong or in the wrong place, adjust the settings and press Apply and download again: each press starts from your original file, so marks do not pile up.