Watermarking - making permanent (unremovable)

[Sarah365212899gam]

I have noticed that if I add a watermark and "fix" it by:

Print production > Flattener preview > All pages in document > Apply

Acrobat often (but not always) doubles the number of pages in the document. What is even more irritating is that it doesn't just add a complete copy of the document after the original, making it very time consuming and trick to manually remove unwanted pages.

I have overcome this issue by making sure that I redact the document before adding watermark, and that this seems to permanently fix the watermark. If I don't need to redact anyting, I make a tiny square of redaction to enable me to permanently "apply" the unnecessary redaction. This has worked well until now, when a colleague has tried to do the same but is still able to remove the watermark afterwards.

Please, please, please make it easier to apply a PERMANENT watermark.

[S. S]

Hi @Sarah365212899gam,

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

I have two suggestions you might want to try:

1. Instead of using the Print Production tool to apply flattener, try:

• Use File > Print and select Adobe PDF as the printer.
• In the printer settings, under Advanced, make sure to select Print as Image.

This will flatten the document and should eliminate layer issues.

2. Try using the Preflight tool to permanently flatten watermark and other elements into the document:

• Open your document in Acrobat Pro.
• Go to Print Production > Preflight.
• In the Preflight panel, search for the Flatten Annotations and Form Fields fixups to flatten all layers.
• Apply the fixups, and then save the PDF.

Let me know if this helps.

^Souvik

[JR Boulay]

The only way to make a watermark truly indelible is to sign the document.