Mark a PDF as draft or confidential before you share it

The tool draws your text or image on top of the page, where it becomes ordinary page content itself. It cannot sit underneath, so a large mark at high opacity covers whatever is under it. Opacity is what keeps the page readable; the field takes 2 to 100 percent and starts at 25.

A watermark is a label, not a lock. Anyone with a PDF editor that can delete page objects can take it off again. A text mark is also real text in the page, so a reader can select, copy and search the word CONFIDENTIAL along with everything else. If you need to limit copying or printing, run the result through Protect PDF, which encrypts the file with AES-256, and keep in mind that its permissions are a request to the reader software rather than a hard lock.

The Text field starts with DRAFT already typed. The defaults around it, Helvetica Bold at 48 points, a red color, 25 percent opacity and a 45 degree angle, produce the diagonal stamp most people picture. Under Layout, Once per page puts a single copy where the Position grid says, with Center selected to start; it is the only mode that shows Position and Margin (pt). Tiled across the page repeats the mark in rows and columns instead.

Tiling is the usual choice for CONFIDENTIAL, because someone who crops the page or screenshots part of it is more likely to catch a copy. It is not a guarantee: the rows and columns are spaced from the size of the mark itself, so gaps remain and a small crop can land in one. The spacing is not adjustable, so a larger Size (pt) or a longer word closes it up.

Nothing checks whether the mark fits the page and there is no preview, so a long word at a large size runs off the edges in the saved file. A 45 degree angle shortens how far it reaches across the page but sends it up instead. The Font list is the five built-in PDF fonts, with no italic; the bold faces hold their shape at low opacity better than Courier.

The Color picker accepts any color. If the document will be printed or photocopied in black and white, a red mark comes out gray anyway, so choose gray deliberately and tune the opacity on screen.

For a company name, the same text settings work, but consider Once per page with a corner position such as Bottom right, the default Margin (pt) of 36, an Angle (degrees) of 0 and a much smaller Size (pt). That reads as a discreet footer rather than a stamp. Sizes and margins are in points, so the default margin sits half an inch from the edge.

For a logo, switch Watermark type to Image and choose a file under Image file, which accepts PNG and JPG. A PNG with a transparent background is the better choice, because a JPG carries a solid rectangle that lands on the page as a box. Width (% of page) starts at 30 and sets how wide the logo is relative to the page; the height follows the image's proportions, and the same Opacity (%) and Angle (degrees) apply.

The text option uses the PDF's built-in fonts, which cover one Latin character set. Common Western European accents are inside it, but letters beyond that set and any non-Latin script are refused before anything is written, with a message telling you to remove them or use an image instead.

Watermark these pages defaults to All pages. Choose Chosen pages to type a list such as 1-3, 5, where the word last stands for the final page, so 2-last keeps a cover sheet clean. Pages stored rotated are handled: the mark turns with the page, so Bottom right is the reader's bottom right.

The tool takes one PDF at a time and hands back a copy with -watermarked added to the name, leaving the original untouched. Before you send it, scroll through at reading size and look for a copy over a signature line or a table header; lower the Opacity (%), reduce the Size (pt) or move the Position if you find one. On a scanned page the mark is drawn over the picture like anything else, but a text mark adds selectable text to a page that had none.