Add a Watermark to a PDF — Free Text Stamp Tool
Stamp CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT or anything else across every page.
🔒 Runs in your browser — files never uploaded ⚡ No signup 💯 Free
Stamp text across every page of a PDF — CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, PAID, a client's name, whatever the document needs. Choose a diagonal banner, a centred line or a footer strip, set the colour and opacity, and download.
The watermark size fits itself to each page, so a document that mixes portrait and landscape pages comes out looking deliberate rather than accidental. And as with every tool here, your document never leaves your browser — which matters, since documents that need CONFIDENTIAL stamped on them are, well, confidential.
How to use Watermark PDF
- Drop your PDF onto the box above.
- Type the watermark text — short and loud works best: DRAFT beats "this document is a draft".
- Pick layout, colour and opacity. The 15% default is visible without obstructing reading.
- Click Add watermark and download the stamped copy.
Choosing an opacity that works
The classic mistake is 50%+ opacity that makes the document unreadable — a watermark should sit behind the reading experience, not compete with it. 10–20% reads clearly at a glance while leaving body text comfortable. Go darker only for the footer layout, which doesn't overlap content.
What a watermark does and doesn't protect
Being honest: a watermark is a label, not a lock. It communicates status (DRAFT), restricts casual reuse (screenshots carry the stamp), and signals origin — all genuinely useful. What it does not do is prevent a motivated person from cropping, covering or re-typing the content. If you need actual protection, you need document permissions and access control, not typography. For most real uses — marking a draft, labelling a quote PAID, discouraging a proposal from being shopped around — a visible stamp is exactly the right amount of protection.
Why stamp at all if it's removable?
Because most misuse is casual, not criminal. A price list marked "For distributor use only" mostly doesn't get forwarded; an unmarked one does. The watermark moves the act from "oops" to "deliberate", and that shift does most of the work.
Text limitations
The standard PDF fonts used here cover Latin scripts (accents included) but not CJK, Arabic or emoji — embedding full Unicode fonts would mean shipping multi-megabyte font files to your browser. If you need a logo image or another script as a watermark, a desktop editor is the right tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can the watermark be removed by someone else?
By a determined someone, yes — a watermark is a label, not encryption. Its real job is stopping casual misuse and marking status: screenshots carry it, forwarding it looks deliberate rather than accidental. For actual access control you need document permissions, not typography.
What opacity should I use?
10–20% for anything that overlaps text — clearly visible at a glance, invisible to the reading eye. The 15% default is the sweet spot. Save 40%+ for the footer layout, which sits below the content.
Does the watermark go on top of the content or behind it?
On top, with transparency — which is why the opacity control matters. Drawing behind the content would hide the watermark entirely on scanned pages, where the "content" is one big image covering the page.
Can I use a logo image as the watermark?
Not here — this tool stamps text. Image watermarks need placement and scaling decisions that deserve a proper preview UI. For a text brand mark ("© Acme Ltd"), the footer layout in gray at low opacity works well.
Why can't I use Chinese, Arabic or emoji in the watermark?
The standard PDF fonts cover Latin scripts only (accents included), and embedding full Unicode fonts would mean downloading multi-megabyte font files. The tool tells you rather than printing squares. Latin text — including àéü — works fine.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Documents that need CONFIDENTIAL stamped across them are exactly the documents that shouldn't travel to a stranger's server — the stamping happens in your browser and the file never leaves your device.