How to add a watermark to a PDF
A watermark is the quickest way to signal "this isn't final" or "don't redistribute this" without changing a document's actual content. Send out a draft contract, a review copy of a report, or an internal-only PDF, and a diagonal "DRAFT" or "CONFIDENTIAL" stamped across every page makes the status obvious at a glance, even in a printed stack.
Step by step
- Open Watermark PDF and add your file.
- Type the watermark text, "DRAFT", "CONFIDENTIAL", a company name, whatever you need.
- Adjust font size, opacity, rotation angle and colour.
- Click "Add Watermark" to download the stamped PDF.
A few practical tips
- Keep opacity low, 20–35% is usually enough. The watermark needs to be visible, not fight with the actual text for attention. A light grey at 30% opacity reads clearly without making the page harder to read.
- A 45° rotation is the classic look, it fills the page diagonally and reads naturally regardless of the underlying layout, but 0° (horizontal) works fine too if you'd rather it sit flat.
- The watermark applies to every page uniformly. If you only need to mark a single page, or want an image or logo instead of text, Add Stamps gives you page-by-page control and image uploads.
Ready to watermark your PDF?
Open Watermark PDF