Editing PDFs

How to add a watermark to a PDF

A watermark signals status or ownership on every page at a glance. It sits behind or over the content at a chosen opacity.

What to watermark

Status: DRAFT, FINAL, CONFIDENTIAL.
Ownership: a company name or "©".
Handling: DO NOT COPY, INTERNAL.

Getting opacity right

Too dark and it fights the text; too light and it disappears. Around 15–25% opacity is usually readable without obscuring content.

Diagonal vs corner

A large diagonal watermark is hard to miss and hard to crop out; a small corner mark is subtler for branding.

In FreshPDF

Add a diagonal text watermark with the watermark tool, or use a preset like CONFIDENTIAL.

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