Same as placing a rubber stamp on paper documents, we need to add a digital stamp to PDF files sometimes. Adding stamp to a PDF can protect our privacy and discourage others from sharing, can authenticate the file with a signature, can mark the document’s status as draft, approved or final , can even help track the source and brand.
Stamp is a kind of annotating, PDF users can add stamp in a PDF tool with annotation feature, such as stamp creator, Preview, Adobe Acrobat or online free tools. We’ll show you how to add stamp to PDF on Mac and Windows in the following parts.
Cisdem PDFMaster
Free Download macOS 11 or later 
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
The easiest way to add stamp to PDF files is using a PDF stamp creator, here we recommend Cisdem PDFMaster for Mac and Windows users.
Cisdem PDFMaster is a comprehensive PDF program with a wide range of tools that allows users to edit, annotate, convert, create, merge, split, compress, encrypt, decrypt, extract PDF documents and so on.
When working as a PDF stamp creator, Cisdem offers 3 types of stamps for you to choose from-- predefined PDF stamp templates, dynamic stamp with author and date and custom image or text stamp. The stamp can be inserted anywhere on a specific PDF page and is easy to copy and paste. Apart from adding stamp to PDF, it is also accessible to add watermarks and signatures to PDF in a breeze.
The Main Features of Cisdem PDFMaster:
Free Download macOS 11 or later Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Go for any of the following ways to add stamp to PDF:
Click Standard tab, select a predefined stamp and place it where you want to add it.
Click Custom tab, you can customize a new text stamp by adding stamp text, stamp style and time-and-date format, or add an image stamp by uploading a desired image directly.
Click Dynamic tab, enter the author name and choose a date format.
If you are a Mac user, you may be wondering if Preview, the default PDF tool to view and markup PDFs for macOS, can add stamp to a PDF or not. Yes, it can, but we will have to create a stamp from scratch, there is no predefined stamp templates for an easy insertion.
In the case that you have installed and subscribed Adobe Acrobat on your computer, you can directly insert stamp to PDF in Adobe. It allows users to choose from predefined stamp templates, use dynamic stamps, even create special stamps with company logo, signature and so on.
If you haven’t subscribed Adobe Acrobat yet, take a second thought to make the payment. To add stamp to PDF only, there is no need to pay for it, but if you need to edit PDFs more than annotating and very often, you can consider buying it after a 7-day free trial.
Offline solutions are the preferred choices to add stamps to PDF while guaranteeing the file security. Online products, by contrast, are not as secure and reliable. They perform the tasks on the browser and require a stable Internet connection. PDF files uploaded online will often be deleted in several hours and even days.
Google Docs is one of the recommended tools to edit PDF without installing Adobe Acrobat or other third-party software. It is capable of converting PDF to Word format and offers editing functionalities to insert plentiful elements, such as images, tables, charts, watermarks, page numbers and comments.
To perform the activity of adding a stamp to a PDF, we have to first prepare a stamp image with a transparent background and then add it to the PDF file as if it were a normal image. You can get the background in the stamp image removed through removebg website.
Some online free tools even don’t require a sign-up, but they are typically limited in file size, task times and features. We have tried a list of web-based tools to add stamp to PDF, iLovePDF is our best pick, it helps stamp an image or text over a single PDF page or all pages. However, it works through the feature of adding watermark and you can place the stamp only at 9 preset positions.
Throughout the whole article, you might be confused about two concepts--stamp and watermark. What's the difference between a stamp and a watermark? Are they the same thing? Well, they are slightly different.
Watermark is a security measure to protect the copyright of an owner’s work, ensuring that it can not be reused by unauthorized persons. Watermarks are usually placed on the background layer and appear translucent.
On the other hand, stamp can be used to enhance authenticity, indicate file’s status and polish the look, which may contain company name, specific date and time. It is added above the contents of the document.
You don’t have to install a PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat to add the stamp, there are so many options. Using Cisdem PDFMaster, you can add predefined stamps to your PDFs easily. Moreover, it gets all necessary PDF tools covered, Convert, Create, Merge, Split, Annotate, Protect, Unlock, Compress, which are basic tools you need the most for your PDF documents, it is worth a try.
If you want to try online free solutions to add the PDF stamp, it would be better not to upload highly confidential documents online, for the sake of possible information leakage risks.
Bianca is a senior tech editor and strategist at Cisdem with Over 10 years of experience on PDF related solutions which covers all document editing, annotating, converting and managing etc.
