Add a watermark to a PDF
A word across the pages — DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, the name of your organization. Angle, size and opacity adjust, and the watermark goes onto every page at once.
Free · 100% local — nothing is uploaded- 1Open your PDF.
- 2Write the wording and set angle, size and opacity.
- 3Download the watermarked document.
How to add a watermark to a PDF
Open the document, write the wording to show — DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, COPY, the name of your organization — set its angle, its size, its color and its opacity, and lay it on every page at once. The watermark is real text embedded in the page, not a picture stuck on top: it stays crisp in print as on screen, and it barely adds any weight to the file. You choose whether it passes behind the content — where it reads like watermarked paper, without getting in the way — or in front, so that it cannot be ignored. A live preview shows the result before the export, which saves the usual three round trips to find the right opacity. The document never leaves your device. The wording stays editable in the editor for as long as the document has not been frozen.
Watermarking an ID document for an application
This is the commonest case: your ID is asked for a tenancy application, an account opening or an enrolment, and it has to be marked so it cannot serve anywhere else. The useful wording is precise: who the copy is handed to, what for, and on what date — “given to [agency] on 12 March 2027 for a tenancy application, to the exclusion of any other use”. Lay it across the document, on the ID itself, without masking the face or the details the recipient has to read. And keep in mind what this tool does better than the others: your ID document goes to no server, not even ours. You can also redact whatever the recipient has no business knowing.
Removing a watermark, yours or somebody else’s
A watermark laid down here comes off like any other element of the page: you select it and delete it, and the operator is taken out of the content stream. On a document received from a third party, the same manipulation is technically possible and is not a matter for us — it is a matter for the law that applies to that document. A watermark has never been a protection: it is a statement of intent, readable by a human.
Frequently asked questions
Can the watermark be removed afterwards?
It is painted into the page: treat it as permanent. Keep your original file if you mean to send it out again without the wording.
Can I use an image rather than text?
For a logo behind the page, the overlay tool suits better: it applies a whole layer, prepared exactly as you want it.
Does the watermark go in front of or behind the text?
In front, at the opacity you choose: that is what keeps it legible over a busy background.
Does the watermark get in the way of reading?
That is yours to decide through the opacity: visible enough for the wording to read, discreet enough for the text underneath to stay sharp. The setting shows on the page before you export.
Does the watermark print too?
Yes, that is its purpose: wording that would not survive printing would protect nothing. It comes out at the opacity you chose on screen.