How to Add a Watermark to a PDF (Text or Logo, Free)

A watermark tells everyone who opens a document what it is and where it came from: DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, COPY, a company logo, or "Issued to Jane Smith". It discourages casual reuse and makes leaked copies traceable. You can add one to a PDF in a minute, without installing software or uploading the file.

A legal document with a wooden stamp on top

Text watermark or logo?

Text works for status labels (DRAFT, SAMPLE, PAID) and for naming the recipient. You can use two or more lines — e.g. the recipient on one line and the date on the next.
Logo suits branded documents such as price lists, proposals and portfolios. A PNG with a transparent background looks best; a JPG logo shows its background as a box.

How to watermark a PDF

Open Add Watermark to PDF and choose your file (up to 100 MB).
Pick Text and type it (press Enter for a second line) with a colour, or pick Image / logo and choose the image.
Set the position: centre, any corner, or repeat across the page (tiled).
Choose the rotation — horizontal, diagonal (45° either way) or vertical — and adjust size and opacity.
Stamp all pages, or only some, such as 1-3, 7 or 5- for page 5 to the end.
Click Add watermark and download the new PDF.

A good starting point for CONFIDENTIAL or COPY: centred, diagonal, around 30% opacity, so the page underneath stays readable.

Things worth knowing

Any language works. The text is drawn by your browser, so accents and non-Latin scripts display correctly — not limited to the PDF's built-in fonts.
Rotated pages are handled. The watermark is placed as the page appears on screen.
Text stays searchable. The original content is untouched; the watermark sits on top.
The file barely grows. The watermark is stored once and reused on every page.

What a watermark can't do

It's added as an image on top of each page. It can't be switched off in a PDF reader, but someone with a PDF editor could delete it. For stronger protection:

Use a tiled watermark, which is much harder to remove or crop.
Add a password with Protect PDF.
Send only the pages that are needed — remove the rest with Delete PDF Pages.

FAQ

Can I watermark a password-protected PDF? Remove the password first with Unlock PDF, add the watermark, then protect it again.

Is my file uploaded? No. The PDF is processed entirely in your browser.

Can I watermark photos too? Yes — use Add Watermark to Image for JPG, PNG and WebP files.

A stack of papers and documents on a desk

Try it now

Stamp your document with the free Add Watermark to PDF tool.