Add a watermark to a PDF
Upload the PDF, type the word, set the angle and the strength, and every page comes back watermarked. No account, and the file never leaves your browser.
Add a watermark to a PDF templates, ready to edit
Open the stamp maker with any of these
Every preview on this page carries a faint Estamplab watermark. Your own download does not: the editor renders your stamp again, clean, as a transparent PNG, an SVG or a PDF. See the full template library.
A watermark is not a stamp somebody positions. It is a property of the page: centred, angled, on every page, meant to be seen at a glance and read through while reading. Tools that make you place DRAFT by hand on each page of a forty page contract are solving the wrong problem, which is why most people give up and send the document unmarked.
What you get
- Every page at once. Type it once and the whole document is marked, whether that is two pages or two hundred.
- Any word: CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, COPY, VOID, SAMPLE, a client name, a matter number.
- A strength control from barely there to unmissable, so the document still reads through it.
- Any angle from flat to steeply diagonal, and any colour.
- Sized against the page, so the same setting looks right on A4, Letter and a landscape drawing.
- It goes over the text, not behind it, so it survives printing and photocopying.
How to make it
- Open the tool and drop your PDF or Word file onto the page.
- Pick a stamp from your library, or design one in the pop-up designer.
- Click the page where the stamp goes, then drag it or resize it from the corner.
- Download the stamped copy. Your original file is never modified.
Questions
Should a watermark go over the text or behind it?
Over it, at a low strength. Behind the text a watermark disappears on a dark scan and vanishes entirely when the page is photocopied, which is exactly the moment it was supposed to be doing its job. Over the text at 15 to 20 percent it stays legible on a copy of a copy and the document still reads.
What colour should it be?
Grey is the default and it disappears politely. Red carries urgency and is conventional for VOID and CONFIDENTIAL on anything that must not be acted on. On a document that will be photocopied, colour is worth using: it is the fastest way to tell an original from a copy.
Can I watermark and stamp the same document?
Yes, in one pass. The watermark goes across every page and the stamp goes exactly where you place it, and the watermark is drawn over the top the way it would be on paper.
Does it change the text of my document?
No. On a PDF the watermark is drawn onto the page and everything underneath stays selectable and searchable. Your original file is untouched: what you download is a new copy.
Can somebody remove it?
From a PDF, with a determined effort and the right editor, yes, the same as any watermark in any tool. It is a marking, not an encryption. What it does reliably is make an unmarked copy obvious, which is what watermarks are actually for.
Estamplab is a design tool. This page describes common commercial practice rather than giving legal, tax or financial advice, and practice changes. Where a specific document matters, check the requirement with the body receiving it. Only produce a mark your own organisation or your own credentials are entitled to use.