Add a Watermark or Stamp to a PDF
An estimate that comes back signed six weeks later is only a problem if nobody could tell it was a draft. One word across the page fixes that, and the same word does the work on a superseded revision, a file copy and an invoice that has already been paid. Hand it a whole folder and every file in it gets the word, back as one zip.
How it works
- Choose the PDF, or drop the whole folder of them, up to twenty at once. They are opened on your device and never uploaded.
- Pick a word or type your own, then choose where it sits, what color it is and how strong it looks. The same settings go on every file in a folder.
- Stamp every page, the first page only, or a list of pages, then download. One file comes back as a file, a folder comes back as one zip with the same names inside.
What you get
- Ten ready words, from DRAFT and VOID to NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION and AS BUILT
- Or any wording of your own, up to 48 characters
- Diagonally across the page, straight across the middle, or a line along the top or bottom
- Gray, red, blue or black, at three strengths from a hint to unmissable
- Every page, the first page only, or a list such as 1-3, 8, 11
- Sideways pages handled, so the stamp lands square on the page you are reading
- A whole folder in one go, up to twenty files, back as one zip with your own names inside
- A file with no page at the number you listed goes into that zip untouched, so the zip is still the whole folder
The revision that came back signed
The most expensive paperwork mistake in this trade is not a missing document, it is the wrong version of one. You send a rough number on Tuesday, a real estimate on Friday, and the customer signs the Tuesday one because it was the one still in the email thread and it was cheaper.
A word across the page ends that argument before it starts. DRAFT on anything that is not final, SUPERSEDED on the version that is no longer in play, and the file that gets signed is the one you meant to be signed.
The words worth using, and when
DRAFT is for anything still moving: a scope you are still pricing, a schedule you are still confirming. COPY is for what leaves your office when the signed original stays in it. VOID is for a document that was real and is not any more, such as a change order that was written and then canceled.
PAID on your file copy of an invoice does more than it looks like it does, because six months later the question is never whether the invoice existed, it is whether it was settled. NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION is the one that matters most on drawings, since a detail printed off a preliminary sheet and built from is a rework bill with nobody obvious to send it to.
AS BUILT goes on the marked up set at closeout. SUPERSEDED goes on everything it replaced, which is the step people skip and then regret when two revisions of the same sheet are on the same job site.
A word rarely goes on one sheet
Think about when you actually reach for this. A revision goes out and the set it replaced has to be marked SUPERSEDED, every sheet of it, or the one sheet you missed is the one that gets built. A submittal goes to the architect and the whole package is DRAFT until it comes back. A closeout set gets marked AS BUILT. None of those is one file. They are folders, and stamping a folder one file at a time is the same six clicks over and over until somebody stops halfway and the rest goes out unmarked.
So hand over the folder. Up to twenty files go in at once and you get a line for each with what it weighs. The word, the placement, the color and the strength are read once and the same settings go on all of them, so a set cannot end up half red and half gray. They come back as one zip named after the word, pdfs-superseded.zip for instance, with your own file names inside it.
A page list works per file, which matters more than it sounds. Type 2-3 and it means pages two and three of each file, not pages two and three of some imaginary merged document. Files in a set are rarely the same length, and a stamp on the second sheet of every drawing is a real thing to want.
What happens to a file that has no page at the number you listed? It goes into the zip untouched, exactly as you handed it over, and its line says so. A one page waiver in a batch stamped on pages 2-3 is not a reason to refuse the other nineteen files, and it is not a reason to hand you back a zip with a hole in it either. The only thing left out is a file that will not open at all, a password protected one for instance, and that one is named on its own line so you know which original to keep.
A stamp is not security
The word is drawn into the page, so it does not come off with a right click and it survives printing, flattening and emailing. That is enough to stop an honest mistake, which is what almost every version mix up is.
It is not protection against someone determined to remove it, and nothing that runs in a browser would be. If a document genuinely must not be altered, the answer is a signed and locked copy from the software that produced it, not a watermark.
Stamp last, like numbering
Do this at the end, after you merge the parts, after you put them in order, and after you turn the sideways scans. A stamp applied before those steps ends up on pages that get deleted and misses pages that get added, which is how a packet ships with DRAFT on four sheets out of nine.
Questions people ask
Is the file uploaded?
No. The stamping happens in your browser, on your own device, using the document you opened.
Can the watermark be removed later?
Not from the file you download. It is drawn into the page. Keep your original if you will need a clean copy.
Does it go behind the text or over it?
Over it, at the strength you choose. Light is faint enough to read straight through, which is what you want on a document people still have to work from.
Can I stamp only some pages?
Yes. Choose the pages you list and type them as single numbers, ranges, or both, such as 1-3, 8, 11.
How many files can I stamp at once?
Twenty. That is a limit on what one browser tab can sensibly hold open at the same time, not a paywall in disguise, and if you hand it more than twenty it takes the first twenty and tells you so. Run the rest straight after. All of the work happens on your own device, so a big batch takes a while and on a phone it will use the battery.
What is in the zip?
Every file you handed over, under its own name, inside a folder named after the word you stamped. If two of your files had the same name, the second gets a (2) added so neither one is lost. Nothing is renamed beyond that, so unzipping it gives you the folder back, ready to send.
What if one file in the folder has fewer pages than the list?
It goes into the zip untouched and its line tells you so. A one page waiver sitting in a batch you stamped on pages 2-3 is not a reason to stop, and it is not a reason to leave it out either. You get the whole folder back, marked where it could be marked.
What happens on a landscape or sideways page?
The stamp is placed on the page as you see it, not as it is stored, so it runs corner to corner on the view you are looking at.
Can I use an image or a logo instead of a word?
Not here. A wording stamp is what stops a version mix up, and a logo does not, so this stays a text tool.