For installation and setup instructions, please start with the PDF Embedder Premium instructions.
Make sure that you have PDF Embedder Free installed and activated.
This page explains how to use the extra functionality provided by the Pro and Elite license levels (formerly Secure) version only.
Important: If you are using any caching tools on the site either by the hosting provider or third-party plugin such as Autoptimize, WP Rocket, etc. please ensure you take the steps to exclude the PDF Embedder plugins from the caching tools. Full instructions here: FAQ on using caching / minifying tools.
When do you want to use Watermark?
If you’re concerned that users might attempt to share screenshots of your embedded documents, or you just want to remind them that you own the PDF, you can specify some ‘watermark text’ that will appear transparently on every PDF that is displayed securely. For logged-in users, you can display the user’s email address, name, or username as part of this watermark text. This is useful if your PDFs are only visible to logged-in users in the first place – but of course, there is not always a way to display the user’s email address if the PDF is embedded on a page where logged-out users can view it anyway.
To specify watermark text, go to the PDF Embedder -> Watermarks. All the options saved on this page will be applied to all PDF files when you will embed on a site.
You can always rewrite the settings on per-PDF file basis using the block options or shortcode attributes.
In the Watermark section, enter lines of text that you’d like to be displayed. You can use the placeholder variables {email}, {username}, or {fullname} where you would like the logged-in user’s details to be substituted.
There are also settings to control the visual appearance of the watermark.
Horizontal Alignment & Horizontal Offset
These 2 settings are working in tandem, and their misconfiguration may lead to your watermark text not being visible (even though it will still be rendered on a page, just outside of the view).
Horizontal Alignment defines the alignment of the text: left, center or right. It’s pretty straightforward and should be used to define a “baseline” of which part of the document you want to render your watermark.
Horizontal Offset is tightly connected to the alignment and changes its logic slightly depending on the value of the alignment.
Consider this:
- if the alignment is
left, then offset sets the gap between the left side of the document and the watermark text (behaves likepadding-leftin CSS) - if the alignment is
right, then offset sets the gap between the right side of the document and the watermark text (behaves likepadding-rightin CSS) - if the alignment is
center, then the offset doesn’t do anything, as you want to center your text.
Vertical Offset
The vertical offset option sets the gap between the top of the document and the watermark text. It acts similar to padding-top in CSS (in percentage).
If you want the text to be at the very top of the document – set the value to 0. This will basically touch the PDF top edge. The recommended value is at least 5%.
The calculation is done based on the utmost top edge of the watermark, so if it’s rotated – the watermark may visually not be centered (in case of 50% vertical offset value) – because you rotated your text.
Font Size
This value in points (pt) is a physical unit of measurement used in typography. It scales independently of screen resolution. That’s why we decided to stick to the same measurement unit used in PDFs files too.
You can define the size of your watermark text. Depending on your PDF visual size, and the site design, you may wish to play a bit with this value to define the font size that works best for you.
Opacity
If you want to make your watermark a bit more subtle – set its opacity or a lower level.
0opacity means the watermark will not be visible.100opacity – full color completely blocking the text or image on the PDF page.
Rotation
Sometimes you may want to display your watermark slightly rotated, in this case the Rotation option comes in handy.
You can define the number of degrees you want to rotate. If you provide a positive number, the movement will be clockwise. In case of a negative one – counter-clockwise.
Beware, that rotating the text also modifies the vertical positioning as it’s calculated based on its top pixel location.
Page Display
Page display option allows you to display your watermark on all pages (default value) or only on the even pages.
If checked, the watermark will be displayed on these pages: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10…