How to Add a CONFIDENTIAL or DRAFT Watermark to a PDF

Stamp CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT or your company name on every page of a PDF. Set position, size, colour and opacity with a live preview. Free and private.

A watermark tells everyone who sees a document what it is: a draft that isn't final, a confidential file that shouldn't be forwarded, a sample that isn't the finished version. Adding one to a PDF takes about a minute, without installing anything or uploading the file.

How to add a watermark to a PDF

1. 1

   Open Add Watermark

   Go to Add Watermark and add your PDF. A preview of the first page appears.

2. 2

   Type the watermark text

   It starts as CONFIDENTIAL. Replace it with DRAFT, SAMPLE, COPY, your company name or a copyright line — up to 60 characters.

3. 3

   Choose a position

   Diagonal runs corner to corner across the page. You can also choose Center, Top, Bottom or any of the four corners.

4. 4

   Set size, colour and opacity

   Size goes from 12 to 150 pt and is reduced automatically if the text wouldn't fit the page. Pick gray, red, blue, green, black or a custom colour, and set the opacity anywhere from 5% to 100%.

5. 5

   Download

   Click Add Watermark & Download. The watermark goes on every page, and the new file's name ends in -watermarked.pdf.

Which position, colour and opacity?

Large text across the middle of the page sits on top of your content, which is why opacity matters. Start with the default of 30% and adjust it while you watch the preview.

Good to know

• Text watermarks only. The watermark is a line of text in Helvetica Bold. It handles English and Western European letters, numbers and symbols such as © and ®; emoji and non-Latin scripts are flagged before you download.
• Every page gets the same watermark. To watermark only some pages, split them out with Split PDF, watermark that part, and put the parts back together with Merge PDF.
• No quality loss. The watermark is added as sharp text on top of each page. Your pages aren't re-compressed, and existing text stays selectable and searchable.
• Mixed page sizes are fine. The watermark is laid out separately on each page, including landscape and rotated pages.
• PDFDoco doesn't add a watermark of its own. The only watermark in your file is the one you choose.

Is a watermark enough to protect a document?

No, and it isn't meant to be. A watermark labels a document, discourages casual copying and makes leaked copies easy to recognise. It doesn't stop anyone from opening, printing or editing the file, and someone with PDF editing software could remove or cover it.

If the contents must stay private, add the watermark first and then a password with Protect PDF — our guide to password protecting a PDF explains the options. Do it in that order: once a PDF has a password, it has to be unlocked before it can be watermarked.