Add Watermark to PDF Online Free
Stamp “CONFIDENTIAL”, “DRAFT” or your logo across a PDF, with a live preview of the real page before you download. The file is processed on your device and never uploaded.
About this tool
How to watermark a PDF
- Drop in a PDF.
- Choose Text and type your words, or choose Image and pick a PNG or JPG logo.
- Set the position (one of nine spots, or tiled across the whole page), the angle, the opacity and whether it sits over or behind the page content. The preview redraws as you change anything.
- Pick all pages or a range such as 1-3, 7, press Add watermark and download. The file keeps its name, so quote.pdf comes back as quote.pdf.
What the watermark actually is
The watermark is written into each page as real PDF content: text in a standard PDF font, or your image embedded once and reused on every page. Your pages are not turned into pictures, so the original text stays sharp, searchable and selectable, and the file grows only by the size of the mark. A text watermark adds a few kilobytes; a logo adds roughly its own file size, once.
The preview is not an approximation. It is the page you chose, watermarked by exactly the same code that builds the download, then drawn by a PDF renderer, so what you see is what you get. Pages stored sideways inside the PDF are handled too: the mark is placed on the page as you see it, upright and centred, not as the file stores it.
Choosing the settings
- Draft or confidential notices: large text at 45°, 20-30% opacity, centred or tiled. Readable, yet the page underneath stays legible.
- Branding a proposal or invoice: a small logo in a corner at full opacity, behind the content so it never covers figures.
- Discouraging copying of a photo or certificate: tile the text across the page. A single centred mark is easy to crop out; a tiled one is not.
- Behind the content works on documents made on a computer. On scanned pages the scan is a full-page picture, so a mark behind it is hidden; use Over instead.
Limits worth knowing
- Text uses the built-in PDF fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier), which cover English and other Latin-script languages. For Hindi, Gujarati or other scripts, save the text as a PNG image and use Image mode.
- A watermark can be removed by someone with a PDF editor, as with every watermark tool. It deters casual copying and marks ownership; it is not protection. To stop people opening a file, use Lock PDF.
- Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.
Privacy
Your PDF and logo are read and written by your own browser. Nothing is sent to our server or anyone else's, which is the point when the document is marked confidential.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add my logo as a watermark?
Yes. Choose Image, pick a PNG or JPG, then set its width, position and opacity. A PNG with a transparent background looks best.
Can I watermark only some pages?
Yes. Choose Some pages and type the pages you want, for example 1-3, 7 or 5- for page 5 to the end.
Does adding a watermark reduce the quality of my PDF?
No. The mark is added as new content on top of (or behind) the page; the original text and images are not re-drawn or re-compressed.
Can I write the watermark in Hindi?
Not as text, because the standard PDF fonts only cover Latin script. Make an image of the Hindi text and add it in Image mode instead.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The watermark is added in your browser, and the file never leaves your device.
Written and maintained by Nudge Systems, Surat
Last reviewed