How to add a watermark to a PDF

How to add a text watermark in PDFZyro

PDFZyro remembers your text watermark settings in this browser, so the next document you watermark starts with the same look.

1. 1Click Watermark on the Home page and choose the PDF from your documents, or upload it. The document opens with the Watermark settings.
2. 2Keep Text selected and type your watermark, for example CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, COPY or the name of the person you're sending it to.
3. 3Leave Make it as big as the page allows ticked for a mark across the page, or untick it and set the size in points. Choose the font, bold or italic, and the colour.
4. 4Set the Opacity: around 15 to 30% keeps the page easy to read. Set the Rotation: 45 degrees gives the classic diagonal mark, 0 keeps it level.
5. 5Under Layer, choose In front of the page so it can't be missed, or Behind the text and pictures so the text stays crisp. Pick a Position on the grid, such as Centre or Bottom right.
6. 6Under Pages, leave the box empty for every page, or type the pages, for example 1-3, 5, 8-. The preview shows how a page will look.
7. 7Click Apply and save. The watermarked PDF is saved as a new version, and the version without the watermark stays in the history. Download it or share it from your documents.

How to use your logo as a watermark

For a small logo in a corner of every page, set the rotation to 0, choose a corner on the Position grid and keep the width small, around 10 to 20% of the page.

1. 1In the Watermark settings, choose Picture instead of Text.
2. 2Click Choose a picture and pick a PNG or JPEG file. A PNG with a transparent background looks best on the page.
3. 3Set the Width as a percentage of the page, then the opacity, rotation, layer and position, as for text.
4. 4Choose the pages and click Apply and save.

Tips for a watermark that works

• Keep it short. One or two words read better across a page than a sentence.
• Keep it faint. A watermark that is too strong hides the content and makes the document hard to read and print.
• Choose the layer for the kind of page. On scanned pages, which are one picture, a watermark behind the content is hidden by the scan, so put it in front with a low opacity.
• Add a name to trace copies. A watermark such as Prepared for J. Smith discourages forwarding and shows which copy was shared.
• Watermark a copy, not your master. In PDFZyro the clean version stays in the version history, so you can always download the document without it.
• Don't rely on it for security. A watermark is a visible label, not a lock: to control who can open the file, add a password, and to take information out of it, redact it.

How to remove a watermark you added

The result is saved as a new version. This works for watermarks added with PDFZyro; ones added by other apps can't be removed this way. If you have the version from before the watermark was added, open Version history and download it, or choose Restore this version.

Removing someone else's watermark from a document you don't have the rights to can breach copyright or an agreement, so check before you do.

1. 1Open the document and click Edit.
2. 2Open Page design in the toolbar and choose Remove added headers, watermarks.
3. 3PDFZyro lists what it added to this version, such as a watermark or a background. Tick what to remove and click Remove and save.

Watermark, stamp, header or background?

• Watermark: large and faint across the page, to show a status such as Draft or Confidential, or who the document belongs to.
• Stamp: a mark placed once where you want it, such as Approved or Paid, with Stamp on the Home page.
• Header or footer: small text at the top or bottom of each page, such as a title, the date or Internal use only, with Headers & footers in Page design.
• Background: a colour or picture behind the whole page, with Background in Page design.
• Bates numbers: a unique label on every page of legal documents, with Bates numbering.

Other ways to watermark a PDF

• Microsoft Word: if you have the original document, add a watermark under Design, then Watermark, and save it as a PDF. This only helps for documents you have in Word.
• Adobe Acrobat: the paid version can add, update and remove watermarks.
• The PDF readers built into computers, phones and browsers are made for reading, marking up and signing, and usually have no watermark tool.