Add a watermark to a PDF
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RK
Rachel Kim
June 18, 2020
2 replies
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I need to watermark PDFs, some with DRAFT text and some with our company logo, before sending them out.

What handles both text and image watermarks, single files and in bulk?

Accepted Answer
Verified by Kerry Morris, Forum Moderator ยท Reviewed June 2020

Text and image watermarks are the same operation with different content, so the tools cover both and the single versus bulk split is the choice that matters:

Single file, Adobe Acrobat: Edit, Watermark, Add, offering a text watermark, DRAFT with the opacity, rotation and position controls or a file watermark pointing at your logo image or a PDF. The preview shows placement live, and the appearance options set whether it sits behind or over the content, behind being right for a logo you do not want obscuring text, a diagonal semi transparent overlay being right for DRAFT.

Free single file: Stirling PDF, PDF-XChange Editor's free tier and several others add both text and image watermarks with the same essential controls, covering the occasional need without Acrobat.

Bulk, the recurring need: Acrobat can apply a watermark to multiple files through its Action Wizard, and a pypdf script overlays a watermark PDF onto every page of every file in a folder, the scripted route giving exact repeatable placement for a standing process like watermarking every outgoing draft. The watermark itself is prepared once as a PDF or image and stamped across everything.

The two appearance decisions worth getting right: opacity, high enough to be visible and claim the document, low enough to leave text readable, usually 20 to 40 percent for an overlay and layer, over the content for a DRAFT stamp that should be unmissable, behind the content for a logo that brands without obstructing. Test on one representative page before committing a batch, since a watermark too heavy or misplaced across a hundred files is a hundred files to redo.

DRAFT went over the content at 30 percent opacity, the logo went behind it, exactly the two layer choices you named. Bulk applied through the Action Wizard across the outgoing folder. Tested one page first and adjusted the opacity down slightly, glad I did before the batch.