Add a DRAFT watermark to a PDF
The point of a DRAFT stamp is to stop someone quoting a number that is still moving. That only works if the mark is unmissable at a glance and does not make the document hard to review.
Watermark PDF — free and local
Draws a text watermark — any language — tiled or centred, at any opacity and angle.
Settings that read as “draft” without shouting
A 40–60 pt mark at 12–18% opacity, rotated about 30° counter-clockwise, in mid-grey. That is the convention reviewers already recognise, and it stays out of the way of the text.
Tiled mode suits documents that will circulate widely — a draft budget, a policy under consultation — because a single centred mark is easy to crop in a screenshot.
What a watermark does not do
It does not prevent editing, copying, or re-exporting without the mark. If the goal is to stop redistribution rather than to label a version, you need access control: encrypt the file with a password, or do not send it.
It also does not survive someone retyping the content — nothing does. Treat the mark as a clear signal of status, and pair it with a filename that says the same thing.
Questions
Will the recipient see the mark in every reader?
Yes. It is drawn onto the page content, so it appears in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome, and on phones.
Does it make the file larger?
Barely — a few kilobytes. One small image is embedded and reused across every page.
Can I add a date or a name too?
Yes, the text is free-form. “DRAFT · 2026-10-20 · for review by J. Chen” is a normal use.
Related
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