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Add Watermark

Stamp every page with text or an image. Adjust opacity, rotation and position.

No upload — your files never leave your device

  • 100% private
  • Runs in your browser
  • Works offline
  • No sign-up
Select PDF file

or drop files here

The watermark will be applied to every page

.PDF, PDFMax 200 MB

About Add Watermark

Stamp every page of a PDF with text or an image watermark — your name, a draft label, a confidentiality stamp, a brand logo. SnapToolz gives you full control: choose plain text or upload a PNG/JPG, set opacity (light grey for subtle, dark for assertive), rotation (45° diagonal is the classic style), position, and font size. The watermark is baked into the PDF as an overlay on every page, so it travels with the file across all viewers and survives printing. Everything runs locally — useful for watermarking confidential drafts before sending them out without exposing the file to a third-party service.

  • No uploads
  • Browser-only
  • Works offline
  • 100% free

How it works

  1. 1

    Drop your PDF

    Single PDF up to 200 MB. The preview shows the watermark composited onto page 1.

  2. 2

    Pick text or image

    Type your watermark text (e.g. DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, your name) or upload a PNG/JPG logo. Set opacity, rotation, position, font size.

  3. 3

    Apply and download

    Click Add watermark. The PDF rebuilds with the watermark on every page and downloads.

What a watermark is actually for

A watermark is a status label and an ownership stamp, not a lock. Stamping DRAFT across a contract stops a reviewer from mistaking a working copy for the final; CONFIDENTIAL or INTERNAL ONLY sets the handling expectation the moment someone opens the page; a tiled name or company mark deters the laziest kind of casual reuse of a portfolio or proposal. The job is to communicate, at a glance, something true about the document's status or provenance.

Photographers and agencies use a visible mark to make a leaked comp obviously a comp; legal and finance teams use DRAFT and CONFIDENTIAL to keep versions and sensitivity unambiguous across long email threads. In every case the watermark is saying something to a human reader — which is exactly why it can't secure anything against one.

Getting opacity and placement right

  • Opacity around 15-30% is the usable band: dark enough to read, light enough that the underlying text stays legible. Below ~10% it vanishes on a busy page; above ~40% it fights the content it's meant to label.
  • A single large diagonal stamp reads as a status flag (DRAFT, VOID); a repeating tiled pattern is harder to crop out and suits ownership marks on imagery.
  • Centre placement is hardest to remove cleanly; a corner mark is tidier but trivially cropped — choose by whether you're labelling or deterring.
  • For an image watermark (a logo), a transparent PNG sits cleanly over content; a JPG drags an opaque rectangle along with it.
  • Keep contrast in mind: a light-grey mark disappears on a scanned grey page — test against your actual document, not a blank one.

Why a visual watermark is not security

This is the part people most often get wrong, so it's worth stating plainly. A watermark drawn on top of a page does not protect, encrypt or restrict the document underneath. The original text remains fully selectable and copyable; anyone can screenshot a clean region, crop a corner mark, or in many editors simply delete the overlay. It raises friction for the casual; it stops a determined actor not at all.

If the goal is actually to control a document, use real controls: a password and permissions via your PDF software, or genuine redaction where sensitive content is removed rather than covered. A black box drawn over text still has the text under it — covering is not redacting. Before sending anything sensitive, also strip identifying metadata with Edit PDF Metadata; the walkthrough in privacy-cleaning a file before you share it covers the full checklist. Treat the watermark as a label on the envelope, never as the lock on the door.

Related guides

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Frequently asked questions about Add Watermark

  • Text watermark or image — which is better?

    Text is sharper at any zoom level, has no licensing issues, and scales perfectly when printed. Image watermarks are right when you have a brand logo you want stamped exactly. For ad-hoc 'DRAFT' or 'CONFIDENTIAL' marks, text is the better choice.

  • Can I remove a watermark later?

    Not from the file itself — once stamped, the watermark is part of the PDF's page content stream. If you might want to remove it later, keep the un-watermarked original. (This is the same behaviour as every other PDF watermark tool — the burned-in nature is the point of a watermark.)

  • What opacity should I use?

    20-30% for subtle background marks (a brand logo behind text), 50-70% for noticeable but unobtrusive (DRAFT across the page diagonally), 90%+ for assertive (CONFIDENTIAL with full opacity).

Privacy, offline use, browser support, and pricing questions are answered on the site-wide FAQ.

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