What is StampPDF?

StampPDF® is a plug-in for Adobe® Acrobat® that can stamp pages of a PDF document with any kind of text — watermarks, page numbers, dates, disclaimers, etc. — in the style and positioning that you require. The stamped text becomes a permanent part of the PDF document.

StampPDF lets you customize the appearance and position of stamped text to comply with your organization’s corporate standards or to create a consistent look for PDF documents. You can specify any of the following for stamped text:

  • Text attributes such as font, style, size, and color
  • Position — top, bottom, diagonal or vertical center
  • Justification — left, right, or center
  • Layer — on top of or underneath the original content of a page
  • Pages to stamp — stamp every page, every other page, every 5th, 10th, etc.
  • Page margins — position your stamp exactly where you want it
  • Bates numbering — specialized page numbering for legal documents

Below are illustrated examples of some of these different features.

Font sizes

With StampPDF you choose the point size for your text. Most text you read ranges in size from 10 to 12 points. Newspaper text for example, is usually 10 points. To create a watermark that fills a whole page, use a large point size. Confidential stamped in 128 points, for example, fills an 8.5 x11 inch page diagonally.

Example of font sizes in points

Doing the points-to-inches conversion

When setting margins, you may be more used to using inches than points. There are 72 points to one inch. The following table may help with conversions:

Points

Inches

8 0.11
12 0.167
36 0.5
54 0.75
72 1.0
108 1.5
144 2.0

An 8.5 x 11 inch page is 612 x 792 points.

Fonts

The following fonts are available for use in stamps:

Courier
Courier Bold
Courier Oblique
Courier Bold-Oblique
Helvetica
Helvetica Bold
Helvetica Oblique
Helvetica Bold-Oblique
Times Roman
Times Bold
Times Italic
Times Bold-Italic
Symbol — αβχδεφγηιϕκλμ
ZapfDingbats — ❁❂❃❅❆❈❉❊❋●❍

If available on your system, you may also use Adobe PostScript Type 1 fonts when you use the Set Font Directory menu item (StampPDF Menu > Set Font Directory).

Text mode

Text that you stamp with the StampPDF plug-in can be Solid, Outline or Invisible.

Options for the TextMode parameter, Solid, Outline and Invisible

Position

There are five options for setting the position of a text stamp: Top, Bottom, Diagonal from Top Left, Diagonal from Bottom Left and Vertical Center.

Options for the Position parameter, Top, Bottom, Diag-TopLeft, Diag-BottomLeft and VCenter

Justification

Combine the position with a justification to complete the location of the stamp. Justification options are Center, Left, and Right.

Options for the Justification parameter, Left, Right and Center

Layer

Stamps can be made either under or over the existing PDF content of a document.

Options for Layer parameter, Underlay and Overlay

Page numbering

StampPDF can number pages sequentially. In the illustration, separate stamps are used for even and odd pages: odd page stamps are right-justified, and even page stamps are left justified.

Page number stamps at bottom right of page

Bates numbering

Bates numbering is a type of page numbering often found in legal documents. Each page number is represented by six digits from 000001 to 999999. An example showing the first five pages numbered in Bates notation is shown:

Bates numbering

About This Guide…

The remainder of this guide contains the following chapters to help you to learn and use StampPDF:

  • Using StampPDF Plug-In explains in detail how to use the StampPDF plug-in, moving step-by-step through the different menu options available.
  • StampPDF Variables lists and provides examples of the various text variables you can use to stamp information such as dates, times, page numbers, and filenames on PDF documents.

StampPDF is a registered trademark of Appligent Inc.