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Acrobat

How and when to add a watermark to a PDF.

Easily add and customise watermarks in your PDFs to enhance security, improve organisation, and create a professional touch.

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Published by Adobe Acrobat India on 22 April 2025

PDF Editing, Document Management, Security

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Adding a watermark to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat

Updating a watermark in a PDF

Removing watermarks from one or multiple PDFs

Modifying watermark size and scaling

Enhancing document security beyond watermarks

Frequently asked questions

Watermarks play an important role in document management, offering enhanced security, professional branding, and streamlined organisation. Whether you want to indicate confidentiality, reinforce your brand identity, or prevent unauthorised distribution, adding a watermark to a PDF is an effective solution. In this guide, we will walk through how to add and customise watermarks using Adobe Acrobat, along with other useful document protection tools such as password protection for PDFs.

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Adding a watermark to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat.

Step 1: Open your PDF.

Launch Adobe Acrobat and open the PDF file where you want to add a watermark.

Step 2: Access the watermark tool.

Navigate to the Edit option in the top menu.
Under the Add content section, select More > Watermark > Add.

Step 3: Customise the watermark.

In the Add watermark window, you can adjust the watermark’s source, position, and appearance:

Text-based watermarks:

Select Text and enter the desired watermark text (e.g., “Confidential” or “Draft”).
Customise font, size, opacity, and rotation settings to align with your needs.

Image-based watermarks:

Select File and choose an image (PDF, JPEG, or BMP format) to use as a watermark.
If the selected file contains multiple images, specify the page number of the image you want to use.

Tip: If you need to convert an image (JPEG or PNG) to a PDF before using it as a watermark, try Adobe’s image-to-PDF converter.

Screenshot of the "Add Watermark" settings.

Step 4: Adjust watermark placement and visibility.

Use Page range options to determine which pages the watermark appears on.

Modify Appearance settings to fine-tune visibility:

Choose whether the watermark is displayed on screen and when printing.
Maintain consistent size and position across varying page sizes.

Step 5: Save and apply the watermark.

If you plan to reuse the watermark, select Save settings, name your configuration, and click OK.
To apply the watermark across multiple PDFs, use the Apply to multiple files option. Add the files and configure output preferences before confirming the changes.

Updating a watermark in a PDF.

Open the PDF where you want to update the watermark.
From the All tools menu, select Edit a PDF > Watermark > Update.
Modify the watermark settings as needed and select OK.

Tip: If multiple watermarks exist in a PDF, this method updates only the first watermark added and discards all others.

Removing watermarks from one or multiple PDFs.

To remove a watermark from a single PDF:

Go to Edit a PDF > Watermark > Remove.

To remove watermarks from multiple PDFs:

Close all open PDFs.
From the Home view in Acrobat, select See all tools > Edit a PDF.
In the Edit pane, under Add content, select Watermark > Remove.
In the dialog box that appears, select Add files, choose the files from which you want to remove watermarks, and select Open.
Click OK.
In the Output options dialog box, specify folder and filename preferences and select OK.

Tip: If a PDF is password-protected, you’ll need to unlock it before removing watermarks.

Modifying watermark size and scaling.

When using an image watermark, adjust its dimensions with these options:

Absolute scale: maintain the original image file size by entering a percentage in the Source section.
Scale relative to target page: adjust the watermark size proportionally based on the PDF’s page dimensions in the Appearance section.

Enhancing document security beyond watermarks.

While watermarks are an effective way to protect and brand documents, Adobe Acrobat offers additional tools for document security:

Stamps: Annotate PDFs with standard or custom stamps for approval, review, or urgent status updates.
Headers and footers: Add timestamps, document titles, or author information to maintain version control.
Password protection: Restrict access and prevent unauthorised editing by setting passwords for PDF files.
Need to merge multiple watermarked PDFs into one? Try Adobe Acrobat’s PDF merging tool.

Frequently asked questions.

Can I add a watermark to a password-protected PDF?

Yes, but you will need to enter the password to unlock the PDF before making any modifications, including adding a watermark.

Is it possible to make a watermark invisible but still detectable?

Yes, you can reduce the opacity of the watermark so that it is barely visible but still present in the document. This is useful for copyright tracking or hidden branding.

Can I use a watermark to link to a website?

Watermarks in Adobe Acrobat do not support clickable hyperlinks. However, you can use the hyperlink tool to overlay a clickable link on top of a watermark.

How do I prevent others from removing my watermark?

To prevent unauthorised removal of a watermark, apply password protection to the PDF and restrict editing permissions using Adobe Acrobat’s security features.

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