How to Add Watermark to PDF

You can add watermarks securely offline to add a quick layer of security using Xodo PDF Studio. Effortlessly customize your watermarks and apply them to your PDF pages across Windows, macOS and Linux platforms.

Nowadays, protecting your documents from unauthorized use and maintaining their integrity is crucial.

If you’re sharing sensitive business PDF reports, creative work, professional drafts, or confidential information, inserting a watermark is the perfect way to brand, protect, and enhance the content in your PDF.

Adding a watermark is a simple way to accomplish all of the above and we’ll show you how to do it with Xodo PDF Studio on your desktop.

Let's begin.

Add a watermark to PDF on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Insert a watermark in PDF with Xodo PDF Studio by following the steps below:

1. Download and install Xodo PDF Studio on your computer.
2. Launch Xodo PDF Studio.
3. Go to Pages > Watermark > Add.
4. In the Create Watermark dialog, create and set up your watermark. Customize how you want your watermark to appear and on which pages. Create a text-based watermark by typing in your text, or create one from an existing image by selecting the image file from your computer.
5. Once all is set, click on Apply.

Xodo PDF Studio gives you flexibility and complete control over how you watermark PDF files. Here’s a look at how you can customize your watermark:

Profile Options:

• Name: To create a new watermark profile, you can access and reuse, select "<new profile>" and click on Save to enter a name.
• Show on Menu: Specify whether to show this watermark profile on the drop-down menu for faster access.

Appearance Options:

• Units: Units for calculating the position of the watermark in either inches, centimeters, millimeters, or points.
• Horizontal: The horizontal location is relative to the left, right, or centre of the page calculated in units.
• Vertical: The vertical location is relative to the top, bottom, or centre of the page calculated in units.
• Rotation: Rotate the watermark (text or image) clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Transparency: Decide how opaque or transparent your watermark appears.
• Show on Screen: Select this option to show the watermark when viewing the document.
• Show on Print: Select this option to show the watermark when the document is printed.
• Behind Page Content: Places the watermark under the page content instead of on top.

Pages Options:

• Subset: Select which pages on which you want your watermark to appear.
• Page Range: Specify the range of pages on which your watermark appears.

Text Watermark Options

• Font: Customize the font, font size and colour for the watermark text. You can also format it as bold or italic and align it left, centre, or on the right.
• Text: Enter the text to be displayed on the watermark
• Insert: Use these options to insert custom variables within the content sections. These will be used when the headers and footers are placed on the document. You can insert the Date, Page Number, Bates Number, or choose Other for more field options.
• Line Border: Sets a border around the watermark text. You can customize the colour and width.
• Background: This option lets you add a background color for the watermark text.

Image Watermark Options

• File: Click on the three dots to start browsing and uploading your image. Xodo PDF Studio supports JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF image formats.
• Scale: Scale and size your watermark image as needed.

Xodo PDF Studio’s options let you fine tune your watermark in any way you want. However, if you find that you need to remove your watermark instead, you can do so just as easily. 

How to easily remove watermark from PDF

Remove watermarks from your PDF with Xodo PDF Studio with the steps below:

1. Download and install Xodo PDF Studio on your computer.
2. Launch Xodo PDF Studio.
3. Go to Pages > Watermark > Remove. This will automatically remove all watermarks from every page within the entire document.

Removing a watermark with Xodo PDF Studio is a quick solution for:

• Editing and reusing PDF content: Watermarks can obstruct text or images, making it difficult to reuse content. Removing them can help with editing the document or extracting information more easily.
• Professionally presenting PDF reports: If a PDF is being repurposed for professional use, such as in presentations or reports, removing watermarks can make the document look more polished.
• Rebranding: When updating a document for a different organization or brand, users may need to remove any branded watermarks for a fresh copy that can be rebranded.
• Printing: Watermarks can interfere with printing your documents. Removing them ensures that you get a clean copy free from any visual distractions.
• Legal and compliance reasons: Sometimes, watermarks can include confidential or outdated information that needs to be removed to comply with legal or organizational standards.

Why and when to add watermarks to your documents?

Watermarks are stamps of text or images that are placed on your PDF pages. They usually appear as a semi-transparent overlay on the content or as a more prominent element.

Watermarks are used for different reasons and can efficiently cover many needs. For instance, it lets you indicate that the content is confidential, copyrighted, or at a certain stage in a workflow - all at the same time.

Watermarks can be your quick go-to option when you need to authenticate your PDF’s content, secure your legal document drafts against forgery, or simply add some company branding.

Watermark and secure your PDFs with Xodo PDF Studio

Watermarks are a straightforward yet effective way to retain control over your PDFs. And you now know everything you need to know to work with watermarks, whether you're removing or adding one. 

You can instantly mark your document as a draft, deter users from unauthorized printing, or subtly advertise your company brand. Xodo PDF Studio lets you do it with just a few clicks.

As an affordable desktop alternative to Adobe Acrobat, Xodo PDF Studio comes equipped with other PDF features you can access offline.

You have options for editing, batch processing, annotating, and further securing your PDF by signing, encrypting, and sanitizing your PDFs.

Try Xodo PDF Studio and secure your PDF content with ease!