What to write when you add a watermark to PDF pages
- DRAFT: for contracts, reports and designs still under review, so nobody prints an old version by mistake.
- CONFIDENTIAL or INTERNAL: for HR files, price lists and plans meant for a small group.
- COPY with a purpose: on scans of a passport or ID card sent to a landlord or agency, write who the copy is for and the date. A copy marked this way is harder to reuse.
- SAMPLE: on templates, portfolio pieces or chapters you share before payment.
- Your name or company: on slides and handouts you share after a talk.
The font covers Latin letters, numbers and common punctuation. Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic and Asian characters cannot be used in the watermark text.
Choosing layout, size and opacity
Diagonal runs at 45 degrees across the middle and is the classic look for DRAFT and CONFIDENTIAL. Horizontal sits in the center and reads well on slides and landscape pages. Tiled repeats the text across the whole page and suits ID scans and samples.
The defaults are 56 pt at 25% opacity. The text underneath stays readable and the mark is still obvious. For a long line of text, lower the size and check the preview. Red works well for DRAFT, while gray and blue look calmer on business documents.
How strong is a PDF watermark?
The watermark is drawn on top of the page content. That stops casual reuse, but someone with a PDF editor could still remove it. To make the mark part of the page itself, run the watermarked file through Flatten PDF in Whole pages mode. Each page becomes an image with the mark built in, though text is then no longer selectable.
To control who can open the file at all, add a password with Protect PDF. Need page numbers too? Add them first with Add Page Numbers.