How to add a text watermark to a PDF document using Microsoft Flow or Azure Logic Apps

[anton-khrit]

A watermark that states "Confidential" or "For internal use only" can be a reminder to others about how they should be handling the document. For example, people who have access to a document may be more conscious of leaving it open on their computer screen while they walk away from it if it states "Confidential".

In this article I will describe how to add text watermark to a PDF document. If you are interested in other types of watermarks, like image watermark or rich text watermark review those articles:

• How to use an image watermark to automatically add a company logo to PDF files and save them in a new folder.
• How to use a PDF (rich text) watermark to add a watermark with a specific design to PDF documents generated on submitting a form.

We will use Add watermark to PDF action from Plumsail Documents connector. This action supports a few types of watermarks  —  Text, Image, and PDF:

So, let us have a look at how to add a text watermark to a document.

Use custom text watermark

Classify your documents

A watermark that states "Confidential" or "For internal use only" can be a reminder to others about how they should be handling the document. For example, people who have access to a document may be more conscious of leaving it open on their computer screen while they walk away from it if it states "Confidential".

Show the status of a document

You may also use the text type watermark to show the status of a document  — such as Reviewed, Approved, or Draft — so that other users immediately recognize the status of the document you have shared.

Identify the perpetrator if the document is leaked

Imagine you need to send confidential documents outside of your organization. Adding a watermark that identifies the recipient can be an effective deterrent for people who might disseminate the information. Besides the email address, you may also use such information as the person's name and the time/date to protect PDF document and identify the leak if copies of the protected documents suddenly start circulating.

Let's have a look at an example.

Let's say you have a list of recipients in your SharePoint site:

You need to send them a confidential document you would prefer not be spread around. For example, a price list.

You can create a flow that is started on a particular item from the list:

Here is how the entire flow looks like:

Create the flow

Let us have a look at each step of the flow.

Flow trigger

Please navigate to MS Flow, create a flow and find For a selected item action from the SharePoint connector. Using this trigger will allow you to start the flow on a selected item manually. Set your Site Address and the List name:

Get item

Get item data using Get item action from the SharePoint connector. Put here ID from the output of the For a selected item action:

Get file content

Get the file you are going to send with help of Get item action from SharePoint connector:

Add a watermark to PDF

This is an action from Plumsail Documents connector.

Choose Text type of the watermark. Put here File content from the output of the Get file content action and the recipient's Email from the output of Get item action.

We set custom values for Angle, Font Size, Color, Watermark position, and Opacity. You may check detailed information on how to use these and other settings here.

Send an email

We used Send an email action from Office 365 Outlook connector, but you can choose another one. Attachment content is the output from Add watermark to PDF action.

That is it. The recipient will receive the price list with their email address as the watermark. It will potentially discourage leaks by identifying the recipient.

Conclusion

I hope this article will help you stay in control of your documents and how they are distributed. If you are new to Plumsail Documents connector, here is the first step for getting started.

This article was originally published here.

Thanks for reading!

[Mgodby]

Is there any way to change the font for this?

[anton-khrit]

Hi @Mgodby,

If you need custom fonts, you can use image watermark or PDF watermark.

[Mgodby]

@anton-khrit Thank you!

[Mgodby]

Hello there. I have this working fine in my Flow. The only issue I'm facing is how when I add a newline to the text, I get an error.

And this is how my text looks like in my flow. 

Do you know what I need to do to add a newline to this text without getting an error? Thank you.

[pbush]

Hello @Mgodby,

Indeed, there was an issue with the newline symbol in the text watermark option. We've released a fix today. Please give it a try.

[davyjcrow]

Hello, will you consider a feature to create a specific layer in the PDF to add the watermark into? Sometimes the watermark will obscure the document content partially, and end users are asking for a way to temporarily hide it by switching off a layer in Acrobat.