Add a text watermark to a PDF

Picking the word

• DRAFT: a version that is not final, so nobody signs or files it as the real one.
• CONFIDENTIAL: contracts, HR letters, anything that should not be passed on.
• COPY: a duplicate of a document whose original matters, such as a certificate.
• PAID: an invoice that has been settled, so it is not paid twice.
• SAMPLE: a template, a mock-up, or a document shown before purchase.

Your own words work too, such as a company name or “For review only”. Keep them short. The letters are sized for you at about 14% of the page's shorter side, so a long phrase can run off the page. “CONFIDENTIAL” already spans more than half the diagonal of an A4 page, and set straight across a portrait page it runs slightly past both edges.

How faint, and what color

See-through goes from 5% to 90%. The starting point, 82%, is a light wash you notice at once and read straight through. Lower it for a mark nobody can miss, such as PAID on an invoice; raise it for pages dense with small print.

Red is the default. Black and gray look more formal, blue and green calmer, and the color picker gives any other, such as your brand's. The words are set in a bold sans-serif and centered on each page. Slanted, they follow the line from the bottom left corner to the top right, so the angle suits each page's shape, portrait or landscape.

On scans with a gray or tinted background, black or blue often reads more clearly than red. Every change shows on the pages straight away, so try a few settings on a dense page and a sparse one before you save.

What a watermark does, and does not do

A watermark labels every page, so the status of a document is plain to anyone who opens or prints it. It sits on top of the page content, see-through, so the text and pictures beneath stay readable.

It is not a lock. It does not stop anyone from copying text out of the PDF, and someone with a full PDF editor could take it off. Treat it as a clear label, not as protection. It also marks only the copy you save: the file you opened stays clean.

It is also text only, in Latin letters: words in other alphabets are left out because the watermark uses a standard PDF font. For a logo, place it with the Picture tool instead, one page at a time.

Watermarks alongside other changes

The watermark goes on every page in the document when you save: pages you merged in, blank pages, pages made from pictures. On a turned page it is centered as the page now reads. A part saved on its own from the PDF menu gets it too, so an extract from a confidential file stays marked. Need a marked copy for one person and a clean one for yourself? Save the marked version under its own name, then switch Show off and save again.

Combine it with page numbers for a stamped, numbered draft, or with a signature on a document marked COPY. For pictures rather than PDFs, the Photo Editor has its own watermark for photos, placed by hand on one picture at a time.