Since watermark first introduced into the world, it now has comprehensively integrated into our society. It can be witnessed in our business documents, photos, luxuries and so on. Being an indispensable tool in our activities from all walks of life, watermark is a great help to business, especially when you dealing with PDFs. The need to add or remove PDF watermarks is rising.

What Is A Watermark?

Generally, there are two kinds of watermarks: physical watermark and digital watermark.

For the physical one, it is a pattern or image formed by different shades of lightness and shadow, which is impressed on papers. The most common physical watermarks can be seen on currencies and stamps. Usually, people can easily identify the watermarks on currencies with the help of sunlight.

For the digital one, it refers to a kind of marker that is embedded into digital data including videos, images and documents. In respect of adding a watermark on a document or image, the process is to overlay a logo or a piece of text on the top of the files with the help of word processors. Besides, watermarking medias including videos and audios is mean to insert watermark algorithms to the data.

Nevertheless, due to the need of economic and technological development, digital watermark is applicable to a wider extension considering its convenience and universality. Because literally, everyone can make a watermark on their digital data whenever and wherever they want.

At present, digital watermarks can be divided into different types including visible watermark, invisible watermark, robust watermark and fragile watermark. For general people, the one that we are most familiar with is a visible watermark on a document.

Why Do We Use Watermark?

As watermark is so common in our life, a question might pop up that why do watermark become popular? Here are the major reasons.

  1. Watermark can prevent counterfeiting, and it is a good way to limit or avoid copycat products.
  2. watermark identifies the intellectual property and copyright of its owners. To add watermarks on their products can inform their customers of the creators and origins, which can ensure the authentication of the products.
  3. It is also a good branding by watermarking their products. Watermarks can help the readers to easily recognize the creators, through which, these readers might contribute to the growth of traffic or purchase.
  4. It can represent the status of a document. A watermark on a document sends an eye-catching signal to its readers whether it is still confidential, public or in other phases. This prevents mismanagement of one’s works, especially for important documents.

But nothing is perfect. Watermark may bring a bad reading experience to its readers.  Readers might find it hard to recognize the content and be distracted by these foreign elements. So take care not to abuse watermarks.

How to Use Watermark?

Many word processing applications is equipped with the function of adding watermarks. For one thing, we can directly use several common default watermarks such as CONFIDENTIAL, DO NOT COPY, and SAMPLE.

For another thing, if being tired of the immutable content, we can also DIY our own watermarks. Outstanding PDF software like SwifDoo can perfectly satisfy such demands. We can not only edit the text and color, but make a watermark logo by inserting pictures or designs, not to mention custom size, position, and range.

This post covers an overall introduction of watermark, from the perspectives of its definition, functions, and some recommendations of how to make a watermark. As watermark becoming more important in our life, it is never a bad idea to learn how to use it. In any case, it might help us.

Lydia is an English columnist for AWZware. She is familiar with different technology products such as office software, location changers, and video software applications. Focused on tech blog writing, she is willing to solve your problems with up-to-date information.