How to Watermark a PDF Using Python

In this post, you’ll learn how to watermark a PDF using our PDF Watermark Python API. With our API, you receive 100 credits with the free plan. Different operations on a document consume different amounts of credits, so the number of PDF documents you can generate may vary. You’ll just need to create a free account to access your API key.

This post will be especially helpful for developers working with Python in document-heavy workflows who need to programmatically watermark PDFs.

Watermarks are used to identify and mark proprietary documents and discourage unauthorized use. In the context of a PDF, a watermark is usually found in the form of text or an image that appears on a document like a stamp. The most common example is applying a CONFIDENTIAL watermark to sensitive documents.

PSPDFKit API

Watermarking PDFs is just one of the operations possible with our 30+ PDF API tools. You can combine our deletion tool with other tools to create complex document processing workflows, such as:

• Converting MS Office files and images into PDFs and then watermarking them

• Duplicating or deleting PDF pages before watermarking a PDF

• Merging or flattening PDFs and then watermarking the resulting document

Once you create your account, you’ll be able to access all our PDF API tools.

Getting Started

To get started, you’ll need to:

• Create a free account to access your live API key.

• Install Python on your system. You can download Python here.

Step 1 — Creating a Free Account on PSPDFKit

Go to our website, where you’ll see the page below, prompting you to create your free account.

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be welcomed by the page below, which shows an overview of your plan details.

As you can see in the bottom-left corner, you’ll start with 100 credits to process, and you’ll be able to access all our PDF API tools.

Step 2 — Obtaining the API Key

After you’ve verified your email, you can get your API key from the dashboard. In the menu on the left, click API Keys. You’ll see the following page, which is an overview of your keys:

Copy the Live API Key, because you’ll need this for the Watermark PDF API.

Step 3 — Setting Up Folders and Files

Now, create a folder called watermark_pdf and open it in a code editor. For this tutorial, you’ll use VS Code as your primary code editor. Next, create two folders inside watermark_pdf, and name them input_documents and processed_documents.

Then, in the root folder, watermark_pdf, create a file called processor.py. This is the file where you’ll keep your code.

Place both an image that you want to use as a watermark and the PDF in the input_documents folder. Name them logo.png and document.pdf.

Finally, in the root folder, watermark_pdf, create a file called processor.py. This is the file where you’ll keep your code.

Your folder structure will look like this:

watermark_pdf
├── input_documents
|    └── document.pdf
|    └── logo.png
├── processed_documents
└── processor.py

Step 4 — Writing the Code

Open the processor.py file and paste the code below into it:

import requests
import json

instructions = {
  'parts': [
    {
      'file': 'document'
    }
  ],
  'actions': [
    {
      'type': 'watermark',
      'image': 'logo',
      'width': '25%'
    }
  ]
}

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.pspdfkit.com/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR API KEY HERE'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('input_documents/document.pdf', 'rb'),
    'logo': open('input_documents/logo.png', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps(instructions)
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('processed_documents/result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()

ℹ️ Note: Make sure to replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your API key.

Code Explanation

In the code above, you first import the requests and json dependencies. After that, you create the instructions for the API call.

You then use the requests module to make the API call, and once it succeeds, you store the result in the processed_documents folder.

In the instructions, you’re also defining the width of the watermark. In this case, the width is set to 25 percent of the page, but you can change it in the code.

Output

To execute the code, use the command below:

python3 processor.py

Once the code has been executed, you’ll see a new processed file under the processed_documents folder called result.pdf.

The folder structure will look like this:

watermark_pdf
├── input_documents
|    └── document.pdf
|    └── logo.png
├── processed_documents
|    └── result.pdf
└── processor.py

Final Words

In this post, you learned how to easily and automatically watermark PDF documents for your Python application using our Watermark PDF API.

You can integrate these functions into your existing applications to watermark PDF pages. With the same API token, you can also perform other operations, such as merging documents into a single PDF, running OCR, duplicating pages, and more. To get started with a free trial, sign up here.