Add Watermark

Add text or image watermarks to your PDF documents with customizable opacity and rotation.

Click to select a file or drag and drop

PDF file

Your files never leave your device.

What is a PDF Watermark?

A PDF watermark is a semi-transparent text or image overlay placed behind or in front of document content. Watermarks serve as visual markers to identify document status, ownership, or classification without obstructing readability.

Common uses of PDF watermarks:

  • Confidentiality: Mark documents as "CONFIDENTIAL", "DRAFT", or "INTERNAL USE ONLY"
  • Branding: Add company logos or copyright notices to published materials
  • Document Status: Indicate "APPROVED", "VOID", or "FOR REVIEW" status
  • Ownership: Display copyright information or authorship credits
  • Security: Deter unauthorized sharing of sensitive documents
  • Organization: Label documents by department, project, or version

Key Features

  • ✓ Text & image watermarks
  • ✓ Adjustable opacity (10-100%)
  • ✓ Rotation (-90° to 90°)
  • ✓ Custom font size & color
  • ✓ 100% browser-based
  • ✓ No file size limits

How to Add Watermarks to PDF

1

Upload PDF

Select your PDF file. Processing happens entirely in your browser - your documents never leave your device.

2

Customize Watermark

Choose text or image, adjust opacity, rotation angle, font size, color, and position. Preview changes in real-time.

3

Download & Share

Download your watermarked PDF instantly. All original content and formatting are preserved with watermark applied.

Watermark Best Practices

Effective Watermarking

  • Use 15-30% opacity for background watermarks
  • Rotate text watermarks diagonally (typically 45°)
  • Use light gray (#888888) for subtle professional watermarks
  • Place logos in corners at 0° rotation

Technical Tips

  • PNG images with transparency work best
  • Large images increase PDF file size
  • Use Compress PDF after adding images
  • Watermarks apply to all pages by default

Frequently Asked Questions

Our current tool applies watermarks to all pages. For selective watermarking:

  1. Use Split PDF to extract pages needing watermarks
  2. Add watermarks to the extracted pages
  3. Use Merge PDF to recombine with original pages
  4. Or use our PDF Editor for manual page-by-page editing

We support the following image formats for watermarking:

  • PNG - Recommended (supports transparency)
  • JPG/JPEG - Good for photographs
  • WebP - Modern format with good compression
  • BMP - Basic bitmap format

Tip: For logos, use PNG with transparent background. Maximum recommended size is 2000x2000 pixels.

No, watermarks are added as a separate layer without affecting original content quality:

  • Text remains crisp and searchable
  • Images maintain their original resolution
  • Vector graphics stay sharp at any zoom level
  • File size increase is minimal (typically 5-15%)
  • Use Compress PDF if file size is a concern

Watermark removal depends on how they were added:

  • Our watermarks: Regenerate PDF without watermarks using original file
  • Embedded watermarks: Use Sanitize PDF tool
  • As annotations: Use Remove Annotations
  • Difficult cases: Try Repair PDF or redaction tools

Note: Some watermarks are permanently embedded and cannot be removed without affecting content.

Our tool has generous limits but depends on your device's memory:

  • File size: Up to 500MB recommended
  • Page count: Up to 1000 pages typically works well
  • Performance: Larger files process slower
  • Memory: 2GB RAM recommended for 100+ page PDFs

For very large files: Split into smaller chunks using Split PDF, process separately, then merge.

Related PDF Tools

PDF Editor

Edit, annotate & add stamps

Header & Footer

Add page headers & footers

Sanitize PDF

Remove metadata & watermarks