There are times when you will need to watermark your document. No, creating a watermark is not when you set your favorite icy cold beverage on a stack of your important papers, and a nice, moist ring forms on the top 3 sheets. Watermarks are text or images that appear under the main text of a document.

Why would you need to watermark a document? Maybe you want to copyright or protect your work, mark a document as a draft, indicate the document should not be copied or it is confidential or top secret, or place your company’s logo in the document for branding purposes.

Let’s give it a try!

How to Insert Watermarks Using Google Docs:

1. Click Insert on the menu bar.
2. Select Watermark.

Inserting a Text Watermark

1. Click Text on the Watermark panel located on the right side of the screen.
2. Type the desired text in the textbox. (Examples: Confidential, Draft, Do Not Copy, etc)
3. Chose the font style and font size.
4. Apply Bold or Italic font emphasis, if necessary.
5. Slide the Transparency bar to the right to decrease the transparency or keep it to the far left for 100% transparency.
6. Select Diagonal or Horizontal for the watermark orientation.
7. Click on Done.

Inserting an Image Watermark

1. Click Image on the Watermark panel located on the right side of the screen.
2. Select your desired image from Google Drive, Photos, Google Image Search, By URL, Camera, or Upload.
3. Adjust the scale to your desired size.
4. Select whether or not you want your image faded. Checking the Fade box will remove the color saturation from your image and give it a faded look. Unchecking the Fade box will keep the full color of your image.
5. (Optional) Click on More Image Option to modify the image’s Size & Rotation, Position, Recolor, or other Adjustments.
6. Click on Done.