Add a watermark, stamp or letterhead to a PDF

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Want "Confidential" across every page, your logo in the corner, a "Paid" stamp on an invoice or your letterhead behind a letter? PDF24 adds all of this to PDFs for free: online in your browser or offline with PDF24 Creator for Windows, and even automatically every time you print.

Contents

Which way suits you?

  • Text such as "Confidential" or "Draft" on every page, also many files at once: Add watermark online → step by step
  • Your logo as a watermark: the same tool with "Type" "Image" → logo or image
  • See the result first, or only some pages: the online editor → editor
  • Without internet, files stay on your PC: PDF24 Toolbox → Toolbox
  • Every PDF you print gets a watermark automatically: output profile → when printing
  • "Approved", "Paid" or your own stamp at a particular spot: → add stamps
  • Put a letterhead or stationery behind a document: PDF Overlay, automatically when printing with the digital paper

The online tools work on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android, without signing up. Your files are deleted from the PDF24 servers automatically after one hour. The free PDF24 Creator with the Toolbox and the PDF printer is available for Windows.

Add a watermark online: step by step

  1. Open Add watermark.
  2. Click "Choose files" or drop one or more PDFs into the file box. Every file gets the same watermark.
  3. Type your text under "Text" ("Confidential" is preset).
  4. Choose the "Position" and the "Font size". For a large watermark across the page, pick "middle, center" and a size of around 60 to 80.
  5. Font, color, opacity, angle and spacing are behind the cog ("Additional options", what they do).
  6. Click "Add watermark" and download the result.

Your original file stays unchanged; the result is a new file. Keep the original: a watermark cannot be taken out again afterwards (more). Add a password only after that (why).

Position, angle, opacity and spacing

  • "Position": nine spots from "top, left" to "bottom, right" (online preset: "top, right"). "Fill page" repeats the watermark across the whole page like a pattern.
  • "Angle": rotation in degrees. Online, −45 is preset (diagonal across the page); 0 is horizontal.
  • "Color and alpha": "Alpha" is the opacity from 0.00 (invisible) to 1.00 (solid). The preset is 0.4, so the text underneath stays readable. For a subtle watermark use 0.15 to 0.3 and a light gray.
  • "Font": "Sans", "Serif" or "Mono", plus bold and italic.
  • "Space" (X and Y, in mm): the distance from the page edge for the positions at the edge; with "Fill page" the extra gap between the repetitions.

Online, the watermark always sits on top of the content. To put it behind the text, use the online editor or the Toolbox – but not on scans (why).

A logo or image as a watermark

  1. In Add watermark, set "Type" to "Image".
  2. Click "Choose image…" and pick your logo. PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIFF work; a PNG with a transparent background works best, otherwise a white box surrounds the logo.
  3. Under "Size", enter the width as a percentage of the page width (preset 40 %; for a logo in a corner try 15 to 20 %).
  4. Choose the "Position", e.g. "bottom, right". Behind the cog, set "Angle" to 0 (−45 is preset and would tilt the logo) and "Alpha" to 1 if the logo should not be see-through.
  5. Click "Add watermark".

"Fill page" spreads the logo across the page too. Text, font and color are hidden for "Image".

With a preview and on selected pages only: the online editor

In the editor you see the watermark on the pages before you save.

  1. Load the PDF in Edit PDF.
  2. At the top, use the button with the name of the current mode ("Insert" when it opens) to choose the mode "Add watermark".
  3. Choose the "Type" ("Text" or "Image"; images as PNG or JPEG with "Choose image …" and "Width (% of page width)").
  4. Set "Text", "Position" (e.g. "Center" or "Tiled"), "Color", "Font size", "Angle", "Opacity", "Bold"/"Italic" and "Margin (mm)".
  5. A page range only: enter "First page" and "Last page", e.g. 1 and 1 for the cover page only (empty = to the end).
  6. "Layer": "Foreground" (above the text) or "Background" (behind the text).
  7. Click "Save PDF".

"Tiled" is available for text only in the editor. More about the editor: Edit PDF guide.

Offline in the PDF24 Toolbox

  1. Open the PDF24 Toolbox (part of PDF24 Creator) and choose "Add watermark".
  2. Load one or more PDFs and set "Type" ("Text" or "Image"), the text or image and the "Position" as online. The differences:
    • "Font": all fonts installed on your PC (preset Calibri Bold). The color picker also sets the transparency. Several lines: the icon next to the text field ("Multi-line text").
    • Behind the cog: "Z-Position" "Foreground" (preset) or "Background"; "Insert as": "Graphic (recommended)" draws the characters as outlines and shows every language, "Text (selectable)" can be selected and searched; "Angle" is 45 for text, 0 for images.
  3. Click "Add watermark" and save the result.

Same settings every time? Create an output profile with a watermark (how) and apply it to finished PDFs in File Explorer: right-click the files › "PDF24" (on Windows 11 directly in the context menu or under "Show more options") opens the "File Tools" window; click "Apply profile" there and pick your profile. With the PDF24 submenu, "Apply profile" is right in it.

Automatically when printing: a watermark in the output profile

If you create the PDF with the PDF printer "PDF24" (how it works), you can add a text watermark as you save:

  1. In the PDF24 Assistant, click "Save as..." and choose the format "PDF" on the left.
  2. Below it, choose the page "Watermark" and tick "Use watermark".
  3. Enter the "Text". The placeholders %d, %m, %Y (day, month, year) and %H, %M, %S (time) insert the current date: Received %Y-%m-%d becomes e.g. "Received 2026-11-12".
  4. Set "Font", "Font size", "Angle (°)", "Color (ARGB)" (A is the opacity from 0 to 255), "Mode" ("Underneath content" or "On top of content"), "Insert as", "Position" and "Margin".
  5. Click "Continue" and save.

As a profile for every print: save the setting as your own profile at the bottom of the window under "Profiles" with "New" (or in the Toolbox with "Manage output profiles"). For a watermark on every printout without being asked, select the profile as the "Profile" for automatic saving of the PDF printer.

The profile only offers text watermarks. For a logo, use an overlay: a PDF with the logo at the spot you want.

Add stamps: Approved, Paid, Received

A stamp goes wherever you put it, e.g. next to the total of an invoice.

  1. Open the PDF in Edit PDF; the mode "Insert" is already selected.
  2. Click "Stamp" in the toolbar. "Standard" holds ready-made stamps such as "Approved", "Reviewed", "Received", "Paid", "Draft" or "Copy"; "Symbols" has a check mark, cross and star.
  3. Your own stamp: under "My stamps", click "Add stamp". In the window "Create stamp" enter "Text" and choose a "Color"; the checkboxes "Date" and "Name" add today's date and your name, e.g. "REVIEWED JOHN DOE 11/12/2026". Click "Create and use". Your browser remembers your stamps.
  4. Click a stamp. It appears in the middle of the page; drag it to the right spot and resize it at the corners.
  5. For several pages, use "Copy to pages" on the selected stamp.
  6. Click "Save PDF".

More about stamps, shapes and QR codes is in the Edit PDF guide. The PDF24 Toolbox has no stamps. Offline and automatically, a "received" stamp with the date works through the watermark in the output profile, e.g. text Received %Y-%m-%d, position "top, right", angle 0.

Add a letterhead: PDF Overlay

You need your letterhead (logo, header, footer with your details) as a PDF. The tool puts this PDF behind (or on top of) every page of your document.

Create the letterhead as a PDF

  1. In Word, for example, create a page that contains only the letterhead: logo, header, footer. Use the same page size and margins as your letters. Leave the page background empty (no fill color).
  2. If the first page should look different from the following pages (full letterhead only on page 1), create two pages: page 1 with the full letterhead, page 2 for the following pages.
  3. Print it to the "PDF24" printer and save it as a PDF.

Online

  1. Open PDF Overlay.
  2. On the left under "Documents", click "Choose files" for your letters (several are fine; PDF24 converts Word and other formats to PDF first). On the right under "Overlay / Underlay", click "Choose file" for the letterhead.
  3. "Position": "Background" puts the letterhead behind the text, "Foreground" on top.
  4. "Repeat last page" (on by default) – see below.
  5. Click "Combine" and download the result.

How PDF24 matches the pages: page 1 of the document gets page 1 of the letterhead, page 2 gets page 2 and so on. With "Repeat last page", every further page gets the last page of the letterhead. So:

  • A one-page letterhead on every page: leave the checkbox on.
  • A different first page: a two-page letterhead (page 1 full header, page 2 following pages) with the checkbox on. The first page gets the full header, all others the follow-up page.
  • On the first page only: a one-page letterhead with the checkbox off.

Mail merge in one PDF: the pages are matched per file. If all letters are in one PDF, only its first page gets the full header. If every letter has the same number of pages, first split the PDF with Split PDF in the mode "Pages per PDF" into single letters (e.g. 2 pages per letter). Load all parts into PDF Overlay or the Toolbox, and merge the results again with Merge PDF if needed.

The online editor does the same with a preview: in Edit PDF choose the mode "Overlay PDF", then "Choose PDF …" and the position "Behind page (underlay)". Under "Mode", "First overlay page on all" puts the first page of the letterhead on every page; "Page by page" matches the pages as described above, with "Repeat last page". Under "Size", "Fit to page" fits a letterhead of a different page size; "Actual size" with "Alignment" puts e.g. a small logo PDF into a corner.

Offline in the PDF24 Toolbox

The tool is called "PDF Overlay": "Documents" on the left, "Overlay / Underlay" on the right, then "Position" ("Background" or "Foreground") and "Repeat last page". Click "Combine". The pages are matched as online.

Letterhead automatically on every print

With the PDF24 printer, every PDF gets your letterhead as it is saved – for example every invoice from your billing software:

  1. In the PDF24 Assistant, click "Save as...", format "PDF".
  2. Choose the page "Paper" ("Digital Paper"), tick "Use digital paper" and select your letterhead PDF under "Choose digital paper".
  3. "Repeat last page of digital paper" is on; pages are matched as above, so a two-page letterhead gives a different first page. Leave "Rotate digital paper" at "Auto".
  4. Save the setting as a profile (at the bottom under "Profiles" with "New", or in the Toolbox with "Manage output profiles").

The digital paper sits behind the content. The page "Overlay" next to it works the same way ("Use overlay", "Choose overlay", "Repeat last overlay page", "Rotate overlay") but puts the PDF on top of the content, e.g. a logo or a stamp as a PDF.

Without a click on every print: select the profile as the "Profile" for automatic saving (as for the watermark). To keep the normal "PDF24" printer as it is, add a second PDF printer with "+" under "PDF Printer" in the PDF24 settings, e.g. "PDF24 Letterhead", that saves automatically with this profile. Finished PDFs get the letterhead with "Apply profile" in File Explorer (how).

PDF24 stores the path of the letterhead PDF. If the file has been moved or deleted, saving shows a message that the file for "Digital Paper" was not found, and the PDF is saved without the letterhead. Keep it in a fixed place and select it again in the profile after moving it.

Several users or a print server: put the letterhead PDF on a share that every account that saves can read; a web address (https://…) works instead of a path too. Open the PDF24 settings as administrator and choose "All users" at the bottom left before saving; then automatic saving and the profile apply to everyone who prints on this printer. More: Share the PDF24 printer in the network.

From the command line

PDF24 DocTool adds watermarks and letterheads without any window, e.g. from a batch file. It applies a profile and changes single values with -profileParam:

"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-DocTool.exe" -applyProfile -profile default/best -profileParam pdf-useWatermark true -profileParam pdf-watermarkText "DRAFT" -profileParam pdf-watermarkPos 4 -silent -outputDir "C:\Out" "C:\In\Report.pdf"

A letterhead behind all PDFs of a folder:

"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-DocTool.exe" -applyProfile -profile default/best -profileParam pdf-usePaper true -profileParam pdf-paperFile "C:\Templates\Letterhead.pdf" -profileParam pdf-repeatLastPaperPage true -silent -expandDirs -includeFileExtensions .pdf -outputDir "C:\Out" "C:\In"
  • Watermark: pdf-watermarkText (with date placeholders such as %Y-%m-%d; in a batch file write every % twice: %%Y-%%m-%%d), pdf-watermarkPos (0 top left to 8 bottom right, 4 center, 9 fill the page), pdf-watermarkZPos (1 on top of, 0 underneath the content).
  • Letterhead on top of the content: pdf-useOverlay, pdf-overlayFile and pdf-repeatLastOverlayPage.
  • default/best is the profile "Best quality" (images are not downsampled). With your own profile (-profile user/<name>) no -profileParam is needed.

All values are listed in the manual.

Header, footer and page numbers

  • Page numbers: Add page numbers, explained in detail in the page numbers guide.
  • Header and footer: the online editor mode "Add header/footer" with up to six zones and placeholders for page number, date, time, file name ({FILE}) and title.

Can a watermark be removed again?

PDF24 writes the watermark into the content of the pages. PDF24 has no tool that changes or removes a watermark afterwards – and none for watermarks added by others either.

For your own files this means:

  • Keep the PDF without the watermark. The tools create the result as a new file; don't save it over the original. If you need a different watermark, add it to the original again.
  • In the online editor you can change the watermark as long as you haven't saved yet, or undo it with "Undo".
  • If the PDF comes from Word or another program, create it again there without the watermark.

What a watermark protects and what it doesn't

A watermark labels a document: as a draft, as confidential, as yours. It is not encryption – anyone who has the file can open, read and print it. It is added to the page content; the text and images underneath stay as they are and can still be selected and copied.

  • To prevent opening, printing or copying, use a password: Protect PDF (guide). Watermark first, password last: adding a watermark removes an existing protection (more). An output profile does both in one step (pages "Watermark" and "Security").
  • To merge the watermark and the content into one image: after adding the watermark, Rasterize PDF turns the pages into images. The text can then no longer be selected, searched or read aloud, links, bookmarks and form fields are lost, and the file usually gets bigger. Keep the original. Offline: open the PDF in PDF24 Reader, tick "Print as image" when printing and choose the "PDF24" printer.

Problems and solutions

The watermark hides the text

  • Lower the opacity ("Alpha" or "Opacity", e.g. 0.2) and use a light color.
  • Put the watermark behind the text: "Layer" "Background" in the online editor, "Z-Position" "Background" in the Toolbox, "Mode" "Underneath content" in the output profile. The online tool "Add watermark" always puts it on top.
  • Choose a position at the edge, e.g. "bottom, right", instead of the middle of the text.

The watermark in the background is not visible

In scanned PDFs every page is an image covering the whole page; a watermark in the background lies underneath it and can't be seen. The same happens with documents whose pages are filled white. Put the watermark in the foreground and lower its opacity.

The letterhead does not show in the result

Some programs, often billing and accounting software, fill every page with a white area. It covers a letterhead in the background. What helps:

  • Put the letterhead in the foreground ("Position" "Foreground", or the page "Overlay" in the profile). This works if the letterhead has no white background of its own and nothing where your text is – only header, footer and margins.
  • If your program offers it, turn off the page background or page fill color.
  • In the online editor the preview shows right away whether the letterhead is covered.

If the letterhead shows on no page, check that "Use digital paper" is ticked and the file is still in the stored place. If it is missing from page 2 on, tick "Repeat last page" (in the profile: "Repeat last page of digital paper").

The letterhead is shifted or cut off

  • A different page size (e.g. an A4 letterhead and a US Letter document): when saving with an output profile ("Digital Paper"/"Overlay", also "Apply profile" and the command line), PDF24 Creator fits the letterhead to the page since version 11.32.0, centered horizontally and aligned to the top; update if you have an older version. PDF Overlay online and in the Toolbox places it at its original size in the middle of the page. Use the editor with "Size" "Fit to page" instead, or create letterhead and document in the same size.
  • Landscape pages: only when saving with an output profile does "Rotate digital paper" or "Rotate overlay" set to "Auto" turn the letterhead when its orientation differs from the document's (decided by the first page). PDF Overlay online and in the Toolbox and the editor mode "Overlay PDF" do not rotate: use a letterhead with the same size and orientation as the document there.

Accented letters, special characters or other scripts are missing or show as "?"

PDF24 takes missing characters from a replacement font; update PDF24 Creator. In the Toolbox, "Insert as" "Graphic (recommended)" helps.

The watermark does not print

Watermarks from PDF24 are part of the page and are printed. If you can't see it on paper, it is usually too light: low opacity in light orange or gray almost disappears in grayscale or toner-saving printing. Pick a darker color or more opacity.

The Toolbox says "Could not add watermark"

Since version 11.34.0 the reason follows the message, e.g. a damaged font. Choose another "Font" or switch "Insert as". If that doesn't help, try online with Add watermark and send us the message.

Can I add the file name as a watermark?

Not in the watermark, but like this:

  • Many files: Merge PDF (or "Merge PDF" in the Toolbox) with "Add file names to pages" behind the cog writes each file's name on its pages. The result is one PDF.
  • When printing on paper: in the print dialog of PDF24 Reader, add a header or footer with the placeholder "document name".
  • One file: the online editor mode "Add header/footer" with the placeholder {FILE}.

If a feature is missing or something doesn't work, write to us at team@pdf24.org or ask in the PDF24 forum.