A watermark marks a document as draft, owned, or shared — without getting in the way of the content. Here's how to place one sensibly.
The point of a watermark is to be noticed without being disruptive: this is a draft, this belongs to a client, this was shared on a certain date. A watermark that blocks the text underneath has failed at the one job it has.
Text or image watermark
Text watermarks cover the common cases — “DRAFT”, “CONFIDENTIAL”, a date, your name. Image watermarks matter when the look is the point: a logo across a sales deck, a signature over a scan. Both apply the same way: fixed to every page, positioned once.
Placement and opacity
Two settings decide whether a watermark looks intentional or like a mistake. A diagonal center watermark at moderate-to-low opacity can't be cropped away with a quick screenshot and still leaves content readable. Edge placement is subtler but easier to crop off in a screen grab — choose based on how protective you need to be.
Step by step
The whole job, in order:
- Open the GainUtility PDF watermark tool and upload the document.
- Add the text (or your image) and set the size and rotation.
- Pick placement — diagonal center is the sensible default for drafts.
- Set opacity low enough that a page of text still reads clearly underneath.
- Export and open one text-heavy page to confirm it's legible.