Watermark PDF — Add Text Overlay
Add a text watermark to every page of your PDF.
Drop your PDF file hereTap to select a file
Supports PDF, up to 200MB
What to do next
Related tools
About Watermark PDF
Watermark PDF is a free, in-browser PDF tool. Add a text watermark to every page of your PDF. The page exposes a small surface — input, controls, output — so a first-time visitor can complete the job without reading documentation.
Watermark PDF is shaped for the gap between "I'll do it by hand" and "I'll script it." When the job is small enough that automating it would take longer than doing it, but annoying enough to want a focused tool — that is the situation this page is built for.
Watermark PDF parses your file with the open-source pdf-lib JavaScript library entirely inside the browser, applies the options you selected, and returns a download. The processing has no network step, which means a slow or intermittent connection does not slow down the work — once the page is loaded, only your CPU and RAM are involved.
Watermark PDF is implemented on top of the open-source pdf-lib JavaScript library. The accepted input formats are PDF, decoded in the browser, processed, and re-encoded into the output format. Files up to 200 MB are well within the comfort zone of any modern browser.
On limits: 200 MB per file is the ceiling. Output formats and quality settings are listed in the controls panel above, and they apply to every run.
If you fit any of these descriptions, Watermark PDF should slot cleanly into your workflow: real-estate agents bundling disclosures; small-business owners sending invoices; freelancers sharing scanned receipts. The tool keeps the controls focused on what matters for each of these use cases.
The output handed back by Watermark PDF is `{name}-watermarked.pdf`. If you would prefer to keep the result in the browser instead of downloading it, you can copy it from the result panel and paste it directly into another tab — useful when the next tool in your workflow expects pasted text rather than a file.
Watermark PDF sits in a small group of related tools. Useful neighbours include Protect PDF, Sign PDF, Compress PDF, and Remove PDF Watermark. They are designed to compose: the output of one is a sensible input to the next, so a multi-step task is usually a sequence of single-click operations.
Watermark PDF keeps the control set focused. Every option on the page is there because a real workflow needs it, and the defaults aim at the most common case so a first-time user can get the right output without changing any settings.
A short note on how Watermark PDF came to look the way it does: every iteration started by watching how someone unfamiliar with the tool actually used it, then removing whatever got in their way. That is why the upload area dominates the screen, the run button is bigger than the secondary controls, and the result panel is unmissable when the job finishes.
If you also use a command-line tool for watermark pdf, Watermark PDF is a convenient alternative for the times you are on a different machine or helping someone who is not comfortable in a terminal. The output is a standard file in the format documented above.
A few practical tips that experienced users of Watermark PDF pick up over time. First, keep your default browser updated — the engine relies on standard web APIs and newer browser versions are noticeably faster than ones from a few years ago. Second, close other heavy tabs before processing a large input; the engine shares CPU and memory with whatever else is open. Third, if you re-run the same kind of job often, your last-used settings are remembered for the rest of the tab session, so subsequent runs are essentially one click.
If Watermark PDF appears to hang, the engine is almost certainly still working — large inputs simply take longer to process inside a browser than they would on a server with multi-core scheduling. For inputs near the 200 MB cap, give it up to a minute on a typical laptop before assuming something is stuck.
Watermark PDF is intentionally narrow in scope so the common case is fast and the result is predictable. If you ever need a variation it does not cover, browse the rest of the catalog — there is a good chance an adjacent tool already exists, and switching between tools is just a matter of opening another tab.
How it works
- 1Reach the Watermark PDF page in your browser to begin.
- 2Drop a PDF file onto the upload area, or click to pick one from your device.
- 3Adjust the options to match what you need. Sensible defaults cover the most common case, so you can usually skip this step.
- 4Trigger processing. the open-source pdf-lib JavaScript library reads your input, applies the transformation, and writes the result back into the page.
- 5Grab the output named `{name}-watermarked.pdf` as soon as the run completes. You can also copy the result instead of downloading if the next tool in your workflow accepts pasted input.
- 6Re-run with different settings as often as you want. Each run produces a fresh output and the original file on disk is never modified.
Common use cases
- Convert a bundle of forms into a single archival PDF using Watermark PDF.
- Prepare a packet of receipts for an expense report submission.
- Combine a cover letter into a single application packet.
- Split a 200-page exhibit bundle into one PDF per exhibit.
- Shrink a scanned tax filing so it fits past an email gateway.
- Compress a marketing deck so the email send-out finishes in seconds.
- Lock a confidential document with a password before sharing externally.
- Rotate scanned pages that came in upside-down from the office scanner.
FAQ
Can I customize the watermark text?
Yes — enter any text, choose position, adjust opacity, and set font size.
Will the watermark appear on every page?
Yes — the watermark is applied to all pages in the document.
Can I remove a watermark later?
Use our Remove PDF Watermark tool to attempt watermark removal from existing PDFs.
Will Watermark PDF keep working if my Wi-Fi drops mid-task?
Once the page is loaded, Watermark PDF can complete jobs without an active internet connection — the engine is bundled with the page, so there is no per-job network call. The initial page load does require a connection (to fetch the static assets), but after that you can disconnect entirely and the tool will still work. This is a side-effect of the local-first architecture, not a deliberate "offline mode" feature.
Can I use Watermark PDF on iOS or Android?
Watermark PDF runs in any modern mobile browser — Safari, Chrome, Firefox and the in-app browsers in most messaging apps all support the underlying APIs. Performance depends on the device: a recent phone handles typical inputs nearly as fast as a laptop, while older devices may take a few seconds longer near the 200 MB ceiling. The interface lays out cleanly on small screens, so you do not need to pinch-zoom to see the controls.
How is Watermark PDF different from desktop apps that do the same thing?
Desktop apps usually have more advanced features but require installation, maintenance and (often) a licence. Paid online tools are convenient but route your file through their servers and gate downloads behind accounts. Watermark PDF sits in between: free, instant, and private, but intentionally narrow in scope. For one-off jobs and the common PDF document workflow operations, it is usually the lowest-friction choice; for highly specialised work, a dedicated app is still the right answer.
Is there a programmatic version of Watermark PDF?
Watermark PDF is a browser-only tool by design and does not expose a hosted API. The reason is the same as the privacy story: there is no Favtoo backend doing the work, so there is no service to call. If you need to script the same transformation, the underlying engine (the open-source pdf-lib JavaScript library) is open-source and can be used directly from your own code.
Can I use Watermark PDF with formats other than the defaults?
Watermark PDF accepts PDF. If your input is in a format that is not directly supported, convert it first using one of Favtoo's converter tools — every Favtoo converter outputs a file that is a clean input to the next tool in the chain.
How long does Favtoo retain my data after using Watermark PDF?
Favtoo keeps no copy of your file because Favtoo never receives your file. Watermark PDF runs entirely in your browser, the input is held only in your tab's memory, and closing the tab discards it. There is no opt-in cloud history, no "recent jobs" panel synced to an account, and no server-side retention to configure — the architecture simply has nowhere for your file to be stored.
Does Watermark PDF reduce quality of the result?
Watermark PDF is built to preserve quality wherever the underlying PDF format allows it. Operations that are mathematically lossless (e.g. structural transformations, lossless re-encoding) round-trip with no perceptible change. Operations that involve a lossy codec inevitably introduce small artefacts at the byte level, but the defaults aim at the sweet spot where output looks or sounds the same to a normal viewer or listener while still being meaningfully smaller or faster than the input.
What should I do if Watermark PDF fails on my file?
Failures usually fall into one of three buckets: the input is in an unsupported format, the input is over the size cap, or the input is structurally malformed (a truncated download, a partial export, or a stream the engine does not recognise). The first two are easy to confirm — check that your file is one of PDF and that it is below 200 MB. For the third, opening the file in its native viewer first is the fastest way to confirm the source is intact.
Why does Watermark PDF feel slow on large inputs?
Most jobs finish in seconds. Speed scales with input size and with how many CPU cycles your browser tab has available — the engine runs in your browser, so it shares resources with whatever else you have open. For inputs near the 200 MB ceiling, expect anywhere from a few seconds to roughly a minute on a typical laptop. Closing other heavy tabs noticeably speeds things up.