PDF Watermark

About this tool

PDF Watermark stamps semi-transparent grey text onto every page of your document, letting reviewers immediately recognise drafts, confidential bundles, or internal-only variants without obscuring the content. Upload your PDF, type your watermark text (DRAFT by default — up to four lines of 60 characters), set the opacity as a value from 0.05 to 1 (0.28 by default), and choose a placement: Bottom left, Bottom right, Top left, Top right, or Center. The text is drawn in 22-point Helvetica at a slight upward angle — about 28° in the corners and 35° for Center. The server applies the stamp to every page using pdf-lib and sends back a ready-to-share PDF in seconds. This is the go-to tool for legal teams circulating preliminary agreements, HR sharing policy drafts before sign-off, and educators distributing marked-up student materials. Files travel over HTTPS and the temporary upload is deleted after processing.

Why use it

• Custom Text and Opacity: Type any label of up to four lines and set transparency anywhere from 0.05 to fully opaque.

• Five Placement Options: Put the stamp in any of the four corners for discreet reference marks, or near the middle of the page with Center for DRAFT-style labels.

• Every Page Stamped Uniformly: The watermark is applied consistently to every page in one pass — no need to open each page individually in an editor.

• No Permanent Content Damage: Semi-transparent grey text lets the underlying text and images remain readable while the status label stays clearly visible.

• Secure HTTPS Processing: Confidential or preliminary documents travel over an encrypted connection and the temporary upload is deleted after processing.

• Free with No Signup: Stamp as many documents as you need with no account required and no branding added beyond your chosen watermark text.

How to use

1. Upload the PDF you want to watermark — files up to 50 MB are accepted.
2. Type your watermark text — for example DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, or your company name; press Enter for up to four lines.
3. Set the Opacity value between 0.05 (very faint) and 1 (solid); the default is 0.28.
4. Choose the Corner: Bottom left, Bottom right, Top left, Top right, or Center.
5. Click Apply watermark and wait a few seconds for the server to stamp every page.
6. Download the watermarked PDF, saved with -watermarked added to the file name.

When it helps

• When circulating a preliminary contract or agreement for review before final execution.
• When sharing internal policy drafts with staff before the official sign-off version is released.
• When distributing board meeting materials that are subject to change and should not be shared externally.
• When educators distribute student-facing materials marked DRAFT or SAMPLE to prevent them being submitted as final.
• When sales teams need to label price lists or proposals as CONFIDENTIAL before sending to prospects.
• When adding a company name or PROOF watermark to design proofs before client approval.

Examples

Tips

• For subtle CONFIDENTIAL labelling, set opacity to around 0.2–0.25 so the stamp is visible without overwhelming the page content.
• Center placement reads more prominently as a DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL mark; corner placement is less obtrusive for reference codes.
• Always keep the original unwatermarked PDF — there is no undo once the stamp is applied.
• If the document is encrypted, run it through PDF Unlock first before watermarking.
• Keep labels short — text is drawn at a fixed 22 pt size and lines longer than 60 characters are cut off.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

Opacity

The degree of transparency of the watermark text, entered here as a value from 0.05 (almost invisible) to 1 (fully opaque).

Diagonal Placement

Positioning a watermark at an angle across the page — the classic style for DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL stamps. This tool angles its text by about 28° in the corners and 35° with Center placement.

Vector Overlay

Drawing the watermark as resolution-independent shapes and text on top of the page content, so it scales cleanly regardless of PDF page size.

pdf-lib

An open-source JavaScript library for creating and modifying PDF documents server-side, used by this tool to apply watermarks.

Flattening

The process of merging overlaid content (annotations, stamps, form fields) into the static page layer — what happens when the watermark is baked in.

Page Layer

A PDF structural concept where content can exist at different z-order levels on a page; the watermark overlay is placed above the base content layer.