Obnoxious watermarks sometimes get in the way of a proper PDF reading experience.

So, if you’re having trouble reading through your documents because the digital watermark is in the way, you’ve come to the right place.

Below, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about removing watermarks from your PDF documents. And then, we'll also cover how to batch remove PDFs from multiple PDFs and add your own custom imprint to the document!

  • What Is a PDF Watermark? 
  • Why People Watermark PDFs
  • Why Remove Watermarks From PDFs?
  • How Watermarks are Removed From PDF Files
  • How to Remove A Watermark From A PDF in Adobe Reader?
  • How to Remove Watermarks in Microsoft Word?
  • How to Remove A Watermark From PDF Online For Free?
  • PDF Watermark Remover On Chrome 
  • How to Remove A Watermark From A PDF On Android?
  • How do I remove the watermark from a PDF in Foxit Reader?
  • Removing a PDF Watermark in Google Drive
  • How to Batch Remove Watermark From Multiple PDF Files?
  • What is the Best Way to Remove Watermarks from PDF Files?
  • Is It Possible to Remove Watermark Directly From PDF?
  • How to Add Watermark To a PDF? 

Before we dive into these simple ways, let’s first take a look at how watermarks work in PDF files.

What Is a PDF Watermark? 

A watermark is a text, pattern, or logo deliberately overlaid on another photograph. The purpose of overlaying a watermark is to make it difficult to copy or use the original photo without consent. 

Usually, a website or company that sells digital images uses a watermark on low-resolution pictures to review them. Later on, a high-resolution image is provided (without a watermark) once the client approves it.

There are a few different types of watermarks you’ll find in PDFs. Check out our guide to digital watermarking examples for more info on that.

Why People Watermark PDFs

Watermark is essential when you want to:

  • Identify your work. You can add your logo, name, or anything that speaks about the services that you offer to the audiences. 
  • Keep the content confidential. 
  • Protect Images (copyright). Also, it saves them from misuse. 
  • Specify validity of the legal document.
  • Demonstrate the purpose of the document (draft, sample, etc.)

Though there are many benefits of having documents or images with watermarks, it also has some disadvantages. 

And sometimes, you’ll just want to remove the watermark completely.

How Watermarks are Removed From PDF Files

Receiving a PDF file with watermarks on every page is one of the most annoying things to experience for readers. They are a distraction, and removing them could be quite a relief. 

Below, we’ll cover some potential ways to remove watermarks from PDF files.

In most cases, to remove a watermark from a PDF file, you’ll need to first convert it into a Word file

Similarly, if the PDF file is encrypted, you need to decrypt the document first and then remove the watermark.

How to Remove A Watermark From A PDF in Adobe Reader?

Adobe Acrobat is one of the most authentic and useful sources to add, edit, or remove watermarks. Removing the watermark from PDF in Adobe Acrobat is pretty easy. 

Here is the step-by-step guide on removing a watermark:

Step 1:  Install and Launch Adobe Acrobat and open the PDF you want to remove the watermark from.

Step 2: Now go to “Tool Tab >Select Edit PDF”.

edit pdf to remove watermark in adobe

Step 3: The drop-down menu will have an option to add, edit, or remove the watermark. Once you remove the watermark, you can rename and save the file in the preferred destination.

How to Remove Watermarks in Microsoft Word?

As already mentioned, you need to convert the PDF into Word document to remove the watermark. So, convert the PDF into Word and follow the steps below:

To convert the PDF into Word, you need to right-click the file and from the drop-down menu; go to “open with” and select “Microsoft word.” A prompt will arise warning you that file will be converted into editable word format, click ok.

convert pdf to word to edit how to
  1. Then, once you have successfully converted the PDF into a Word file, go to the design tab and select “watermark.”
edit watermark in pdf document ms word
  1. Now select “remove watermark.”
how to remove pdf watermark in ms word

How to Remove A Watermark From PDF Online For Free?

If you have a PDF file on your mobile  and you can’t use Adobe Acrobat to remove the watermark, here is what you can do to remove it online for free.

There are a few different tools you can use to remove the watermark, but for simplicity’s sake, we can use PDFfiller to upload the PDF file to remove the watermark.

pdf filler watermark editor

Now, click the Watermark tab on the right. Double-click the watermark, then click the delete icon. And you are done.

Following this simple way, you can remove the watermark from PDF without spending any penny. 

PDF Watermark Remover On Chrome 

PDF Watermark Remover is another online app that lets you to remove any additional scripts from PDF, stamps, and watermarks. 

You can either add the app extension to your chrome or use the online app.

Here is how you can remove watermark in PDF watermark remover;

  1. Select a PDF file you want to remove the watermark from.
  2. Enter the watermark. 
  3. The app will recognize the watermark and then remove it in less than a minute. 

How to Remove A Watermark From A PDF On Android?

Removing the watermark from PDF in Android is as simple as removing it using Adobe Acrobat. 

You can get any preferred PDF editor software on your Android and open the file you want to remove the watermark. 

Now go to the edit section and find the watermark tab. 

You can add, remove, or edit it from here.

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How do I remove the watermark from a PDF in Foxit Reader?

To add, edit, or remove watermarks from a PDF with Foxit, you’ll need their Foxit PDF editor tool - and not the regular Foxit PDF reader.

Then, once you've installed the PDF editor, to remove a watermark from a PDF in Foxit, all you have to do is:

  1. Open your PDF file.
  2. Go to the Organize tab.
  3. Click on “Watermark”.
  4. And click “Remove all”.
foxit remove all watermarks from pdf

Removing a PDF Watermark in Google Drive

No software is required to process or access the documents in Google Drive. 

To remove watermarks on the PDF, Google Drive depends on Google Docs to deal with watermarked PDFs.

  1. Import the PDF to Google Drive. Click New -> File Upload, and select the PDF document you want to remove the watermark from.
  2. Then open the PDF with Google docs.
  3. Then, once the PDF becomes editable, you can simply select the watermark in your document and click delete.

Alternatively, you can go to Insert, Watermark, and click Remove watermark in the pop-up to delete it.

edit watermark in google drive how to


You can also update or edit the watermark and upload your own imprint by clicking Select image and uploading your watermark file or URL.

how to insert watermark in pdf document google drive


How to Batch Remove Watermark From Multiple PDF Files?

Wondering how to remove watermarks from many PDF files? 

Well, you need a program that allows batch removal of watermarks. 

For this, PDFelement is a great way to remove multiple PDFs from multiple files.

Here’s how:

  1. Download PDFelement and follow the prompt to run it on your system.
  2. Launch the PDFelement, and open the PDF you want to remove the watermark from.
  3. On the topmost menu, you can see a “tool” tab; click it. A menu will appear, and from the right corner, you have to select ‘Batch process.”
batch process pdf multiple watermark files
  1. Then, from the Watermark tab, add your batch PDF files. Select Remove Watermark option on the right. And finally, click Start to batch remove those multiple watermarks from the uploaded files.
upload and remove multiple watermarks from pdfs

You can then also batch print multiple PDF files at once after that.

What is the Best Way to Remove Watermarks from PDF Files?

We have mentioned various ways of removing watermark from PDF, but it is also imperative to highlight the best tools serving the market. 

Now, if you’re looking for simple, surface-level PDF editing features, most PDF tools can get the job done.

Adobe acrobat reader is widely used for editing PDFs and specifically for removing stamps or watermarks. The process of deleting the watermark is quite easy and quick. You can also use it on Android on the go or any other operating system. 

Besides Acrobat, Google Docs is also a reliable source to remove watermarks. 

The process is already mentioned in the content. There are also some other softwares that can help remove watermarks or stamps, including:

  • PDFelement.
  • Remove and add watermark.
  • Photoshop CS5.
  • Pixlr.
  • Wondershare Fotophire.
  • Photo Stamp Remover.
  • GIMP.
  • SoftOrbits Photo Stamp Remover.

Depending on your requirements, you can simply remove watermarks online for convenience. 

Or if you’re looking for something more advanced or you want to batch remove PDFs from multiple files, you can use any of the tools mentioned above.

Is It Possible to Remove Watermark Directly From PDF?

You cannot generally remove the watermark directly from PDF, you have to convert it into word format first.

Fortunately, converting the document back to PDF after that is easy. 

Check out our guides on conversions if you’re looking to convert your documents back to PDF:

How to Add Watermark To a PDF? 

Finally, if you want to your own custom watermark to your PDF document, after removing the original one, you can use Adobe Acrobat or even Google Docs to do just that.

Adobe Acrobat contains a built-in watermark feature that allows you to watermark a PDF. If you are editing a PDF file, navigate to the document option. Then select the watermark option and click Add. 

This way, you can add a watermark to your PDF file. You can also add a watermark containing text. Simply go to "Text", enter the text, and here your text is added to the PDF. 

What's more, you can also add an image as a watermark. 

To do this, go to "File", click "Browse", and then choose the desired image that you want to add as the watermark. 

Conclusion

Adding or removing watermarks to a PDF file is not a difficult thing to do. 

Using Adobe Acrobat, Google docs, PDFelement, Microsoft word, or other preferred software, you can easily remove stamps and watermarks from content. 

We hope this guide will help you remove the watermark from PDF. 

Also, you will be able to batch remove the watermark from the PDF files. So, follow our guide and enjoy watermark-free PDF documents. 

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