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PDF watermark

PDF tools

Add a text or image watermark to PDF pages, locally.

Updated

100% private. Your PDF never leaves your device — watermarking runs in your browser. (Open DevTools → Network to verify.)

One PDF at a time. Pages keep their original quality.

Quick start

How to watermark a PDF

Add a text or image watermark to a PDF — locally, with no upload and no quality loss.

  1. Step 1
    Drop or pick a PDF

    Drag your PDF onto the drop zone, click to choose it, or paste from the clipboard. The file stays on your device.

  2. Step 2
    Pick text or image and adjust

    Pick text (any string + font size + colour) or image (PNG/JPG). Set opacity, rotation, position or tile diagonally, and which pages to stamp.

  3. Step 3
    Apply, then download

    Hit Apply watermark. The new file is built locally and offered as <name>-watermarked.pdf — no signup, no upload, no server-side copy.

In-depth guide

Add watermarks to PDFs in your browser — full guide

This tool stamps a text or image watermark onto one or more pages of a PDF. The watermark is drawn on top of the existing content, so the original text, images and vectors stay exactly as they were. Everything runs locally — your PDF never leaves the tab.

When to watermark a PDF

Watermarks are usually used to communicate intent, not to make a document tamper-proof. Good uses:

  • Drafts and confidential reports — tile a "DRAFT" or "CONFIDENTIAL" stamp across every page so screenshots and prints carry the warning.
  • Branding — drop a small logo in the bottom-right of every page of a proposal or whitepaper.
  • Sharing receipts and IDs — put the recipient's name + purpose ("for ACME visa application only") on a scanned ID copy to discourage re-use.
  • Sample / preview marking — stamp "SAMPLE" on free previews of paid documents.

Text vs image watermarks

Text watermarks are the simplest and most flexible — pick any string, font size, colour, opacity, rotation and position. They render in Helvetica Bold, which is one of the 14 PDF standard fonts so the file size hardly grows.

Image watermarks let you stamp a logo. We accept PNG (with transparency) and JPG. The width is set in PDF points (1 pt = 1/72 inch); height scales proportionally. For best results use a high resolution PNG with transparent background.

Position & tiling

Nine anchor positions cover the common cases: corners, edge midpoints and centre. Pick a corner for unobtrusive branding, centre for a single big stamp, or Tile for a repeating diagonal pattern that covers the whole page. Tiling makes the watermark survive cropping and screenshots best.

Rotation is in degrees counter-clockwise. -30° to -45° is the classic "DRAFT / CONFIDENTIAL" tilt; 0° is straight text.

Privacy & safety

Watermarks are visual, not cryptographic. A determined user can still remove them by editing the PDF stream. For legal proofs, sign the document instead.

The PDF is loaded into a Web Worker; pdf-lib appends drawing instructions for the watermark; the modified PDF is offered as a download. There's no network round-trip and no server-side copy at any step.

Frequently asked questions

Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?

No. Watermarking runs inside your browser using a Web Worker — your PDF is never sent to a server. Open DevTools → Network while watermarking to confirm.

Does watermarking re-encode my pages?

No. The original page content stream is preserved byte-for-byte. The watermark is added as an extra drawing instruction on top of each page, so quality and file size barely change.

Can I add an image watermark instead of text?

Yes. Switch to the Image tab and drop a PNG or JPG (e.g. a logo). You can set its width in points, opacity, rotation, position and whether to tile it across the page.

What positions can I choose?

Any of the 3×3 grid anchors (top-left through bottom-right) or 'Tile' which repeats the watermark diagonally across the page — useful for 'DRAFT' or 'CONFIDENTIAL' stamps.

Can I watermark only specific pages?

Yes. Switch the scope to 'Selected pages' and enter a range like 1-3,5,7-9. Only those pages will receive the watermark.

Will the watermark be removable?

Not casually. The watermark is added as part of the page's drawing instructions, so it appears in every viewer, print and screenshot. A skilled user can still remove it by editing the PDF stream — for legally binding stamps use a signed PDF.

What about password-protected PDFs?

Decrypt the file first in your PDF reader (Save as → without password) and then watermark the result. pdf-lib can read encrypted PDFs but cannot save modifications back into them.

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