watermark type
Tiled watermark for a PDF
A tiled watermark repeats your text many times across the page in a regular grid instead of placing a single mark. It is the most difficult style to remove because there is no single area to crop or paint over, which makes it the right choice for documents where deterrence matters more than elegance.
Tiled watermark, repeated in a rotated grid
When to tile instead of stamp once
A single watermark can be covered by a white rectangle or cropped away in a few seconds. A tiled pattern cannot: removing it means removing the page. That makes tiling the appropriate style for proof copies, specimen documents, unpaid invoices and anything that must not be quietly reused.
- Proofs and review copies that must not be mistaken for final artwork
- Specimen or sample documents sent for approval
- Unpaid invoice copies and statements
- Anything being circulated before payment or sign-off
Controlling the pattern
The gap between repetitions is the main control. A larger gap gives a cleaner, more restrained page; a smaller gap makes the pattern denser and harder to remove. Around 50-70% of the word's width is a good starting point for readable body text.
The whole pattern is drawn once and shared between pages, so tiling 200 pages costs about the same file size as tiling one. There is an upper bound on the number of repetitions; if your spacing would exceed it, we place a single centred mark instead and tell you on the result page rather than producing an enormous file.
Rotation and readability
Tiles are usually rotated at the same angle as a diagonal watermark, around 30 to 45 degrees, because a straight grid competes with horizontal lines of text. A slight rotation lets the eye skip past the pattern while still making removal impractical.
Frequently asked questions
Is a tiled watermark harder to remove than a normal one?
Yes. A single mark can be covered with a shape or cropped out; a tiled pattern would require removing or reconstructing the whole page. No watermark is truly unremovable for someone determined and equipped, but tiling raises the effort from seconds to impractical.
Does tiling make the PDF file much larger?
No. The repeated pattern is stored once and reused on every page, so a tiled 200-page document grows by roughly the same amount as a tiled 2-page one. This is why we can offer tiling on large documents without a size penalty.
Can I control how dense the pattern is?
Yes. The gap between repetitions is adjustable, from a sparse grid to a very dense pattern. Denser is harder to remove but makes the document harder to read, so most people settle around the middle and reduce the opacity instead.