How to add a logo or stamp image to PDF pages

Upload a PDF and an image, pick a corner in Image placement, set Relative scale and raise the opacity to 80–95% for a logo. The mark goes on every page; a stamp for a single page goes in the editor.

To put a company logo on a finished report, open the Image watermark tool. It places the same picture on every page of the document, either in the center or in one of the four corners, about 8.5 mm (a third of an inch) from the edges. You cannot pick individual pages or a free position: if a stamp belongs on one specific page next to a signature, use Edit PDF instead.

The mark is laid on top of the page content, and the text layer is kept, so the text can still be searched and copied. If you need a word such as "Copy" or "Draft" rather than a picture, use Add watermark. For marking an ID scan with its purpose and date, see Watermarking Copies of Your Passport and IDs.

Prepare the image

A PNG with a transparent background works best, because only the artwork itself lands on the page. JPG has no transparency, so the white rectangle around the logo is placed too and hides the text beneath it, more so the higher the opacity. If your logo only exists as a JPG, ask your designer for a PNG or remove the background in an image editor.

Crop empty margins around the artwork. The size of the mark is based on the width of the whole image, and wide blank margins use up part of that width, so the logo itself ends up noticeably smaller than you planned.

Check sharpness at 100% zoom. An image a couple of hundred pixels wide, stretched across a third of the page, turns blurry, which is especially visible on a round stamp with small lettering along the edge. For a logo about 5–6 cm (2 inches) wide that will be printed, start from roughly 700–1000 pixels of width.

A stamp photographed with a phone sometimes stores its rotation only in a metadata tag. The tool does not read that tag, so the mark can end up lying on its side. If that happens, rotate the image in an image editor, save a copy as PNG and upload it again.

Upload the PDF and the image

1. Drag both files into the upload area, or click "or choose on your device". 2. Follow the hint below the settings: the PDF document first, then the watermark image. 3. The image can be JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC or HEIF; two files at most. 4. Set the options described below and click "Process files". 5. Download the result and open it before sending it anywhere.

If you upload only one file, you will see "This tool requires 2 files: one PDF and one image." A PDF that needs a password to open will not be accepted; remove the protection first as described in How to Remove a PDF Password.

Finish content edits before branding: a logo over outdated figures does not make the report current.

Pick a corner in Image placement

The list has five options: "Center", "Top left", "Top right", "Bottom left" and "Bottom right". The default is "Center", which is almost always wrong for a company logo, because the mark lands on the main text. Choose a corner explicitly. "Top right" usually works, or "Top left" if the header is empty there. The bottom corners tend to clash with page numbers and footnotes.

The distance from the edges is fixed at about 8.5 mm and cannot be changed. If a heading or a table header runs close to the edge, the mark will cover it; pick another corner or reduce the scale. Rotated pages are handled the way they appear on screen: "Top right" means the upper right corner as you normally see the page.

Keep "Center" for a large background emblem at low opacity: it shows who the document belongs to without getting in the way of reading.

Set the size with Relative scale

"Relative scale" is a share of the page width, not a measurement in centimeters or inches. Allowed values run from 0.05 to 1, and the default is 0.28: on a portrait A4 page the mark comes out about 59 mm wide, and Letter gives nearly the same result. Reference points for A4: 0.1 is about 21 mm, a neat logo in the corner of a letter; 0.15 is about 31 mm; 0.5 is about 105 mm, a large emblem in the center.

The height follows the proportions of the image. A wide horizontal logo at 0.28 takes little vertical space, while a round stamp at the same value becomes a 59 × 59 mm square and covers half of the header.

Landscape pages are wider, so the mark gets bigger on them: at 0.28 on a landscape A4 page it is about 83 mm wide. If your report has landscape appendices, check them separately.

Adjust the opacity

The "Image watermark opacity (%)" field accepts values from 5 to 95, with 35 as the default. That is a faint background mark, not a company logo. The mark cannot be made fully opaque, but at 95 the difference is invisible. Reference points: a logo in a corner, 80–95; a background emblem in the center, 15–35, so the text underneath stays readable.

The image's own opacity is multiplied by this value. If the PNG is already semi-transparent, lowering the opacity makes it even lighter: artwork drawn at 50% opacity ends up at about 18% with the setting at 35. In that case raise the value to 90–95 or use an opaque source. And remember the JPG issue: at 90 the white rectangle around the artwork almost completely hides the text below it.

An example for a training report: "Top right", scale 0.15, opacity 90. If the mark touches a section title, lower the scale to 0.12 or switch to "Top left". Change one setting at a time and check the downloaded file after each run.

A stamp on one page: use the editor

To put a stamp image only on the last page next to the signature, open Edit PDF, go to that page and click the "Image" button (its tooltip reads "Add image"). The editor accepts PNG and JPEG only, so save a HEIC or WEBP photo in one of those formats first. Drag the picture next to the signature and adjust its size. "Keep proportions when resizing" is on by default; leave it on so a round stamp does not get squashed into an oval.

A stamp image is a graphic element. It does not create a cryptographic signature, does not verify the signer's authority and does not by itself determine the document's legal standing; whether a copy like this is acceptable is up to the recipient. For signing options, read How to sign a PDF without printing or scanning.

Check the result: common mistakes

Open the first and last pages, a few pages in the middle, any landscape appendices and the densest table. Make sure the mark does not cover totals, axis labels or footnotes, and look at the document both at normal size and zoomed in. For a printed copy, check the print preview as well.

Typical problems and their causes:

• The logo is faint: the opacity is still at the default 35.
• There is a white box around the logo: a JPG was uploaded instead of a PNG with a transparent background.
• The mark is lying on its side: the phone photo keeps its rotation only in a metadata tag.
• The mark covers a heading or page number: choose another corner or lower "Relative scale".
• The logo is blurry: the source image is too small, so use a larger file.
• The mark appears on a cover page where it is not wanted: the tool always processes every page, so use the editor for selected pages.

Enter a clear name in the "Output file name" field, for example "report-with-logo", and keep the original PDF separately, since it is easier to edit before the next round of approvals.