Add a watermark to a PDF on your iPhone

How to add a watermark to a PDF on iPhone with Scanfone

1. Open Scanfone and scan the document, or import the PDF from Files or your photos.
2. Open the document and choose Watermark.
3. Type your watermark text, for example "Copy for ABC Lettings only" or "Draft".
4. Check the preview on your pages.
5. Save, then share, print or save the watermarked PDF to Files.

A watermark you actually want

Scanner apps have given watermarks a bad name. In many of them, a watermark is the thing the free version stamps over your document until you pay. Scanfone flips that around: there is no app watermark over your content, and adding a watermark to a PDF is a free tool you control.

You choose the words. Scanfone puts them on your pages. That is the whole deal.

Protect copies of your ID and documents

The most useful watermark is a boring one. When a landlord, employer or agency asks for a copy of your passport or ID card, add a line such as "Copy for [company] rental application, November 2026". If that copy ever turns up somewhere else, it is obvious where it came from and what it was meant for, and it is less useful to anyone trying to reuse it.

Scan the document with the ID card scanner (front and back on one page) or the passport scanner, add your watermark, and send it. For details that nobody needs, such as a document number, also use redact to hide them completely.

Other ways people use watermarks

Watermarks pair well with the other edit tools. Add page numbers and footer text to long documents, and sign the PDF if it needs a signature.

• Draft or Not final on contracts and proposals still under discussion
• Confidential on internal documents and reports
• Copy on certificates and diplomas you send as attachments
• Paid or Received on invoices and receipts
• Your name or business name on documents you share publicly

Free, with no surprise at save

Watermarking, saving, sharing and printing are free and unlimited, with no ads and no account. Nothing is waiting behind the save button.

Free PDFs get one small line under each page, "Scanned free with Scanfone". It sits below the content, never over it. Scanfone Pro removes it, along with adding sync and a 1 TB backup, for $2.99 the first year, then $19.99 a year.

Done on your phone

Your ID copies and contracts are not uploaded to apply a watermark. Scanfone edits PDFs on your iPhone, uploads nothing unless you turn on Pro sync, and uses no tracking and no analytics. For documents you want to keep extra private, use the Safe, a folder locked with a PIN and Face ID.

Watermark or redact? Often both

A watermark and redaction do different jobs. A watermark adds text across the page, so anyone looking at the document knows it is a copy and what it was meant for. Redaction covers part of the page completely so it cannot be read at all.

For a copy of your ID going to a landlord, a good routine is: scan, redact anything they do not need, add a watermark that names the recipient and the date, then send. It takes under a minute and makes your copy far less useful to anyone who should not have it. If you need several documents in one file, merge them before you add the watermark.

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