Add a logo or other picture

It is useful to be able to quickly add a text watermark.

But being able to add pictures and other objects opens up many more possibilities.

Open the Watermark gallery, and click Custom Watermark. Then, click Picture watermark and select Picture.

Choose a picture file and click Insert. Click Apply.

By default, Word centers a picture vertically, and scales or resizes it automatically to extend to the left and right margins.

Also, the image is washed out, or made semitransparent, so it doesn’t compete visually with the foreground text.

Click Scale if you want to change how the image is scaled.

For example, you can scale it to half the size, twice the size, keep it at its original size, or enter your own scale.

Clear the Washout checkbox and click Apply to see what that does.

As you can see, most watermark pictures need to be washed out a bit, so they don't distract the reader. Click OK or Close.

Watermark pictures are tricky because you have to find an image that is easily recognizable, but doesn’t fight for dominance with the foreground text.

This logo works well because the reader will immediately know what it is, and it contains simple shapes and only two colors.

But we can make it even more unobtrusive.

Open the Watermark gallery and click Custom Watermark, and let's choose this other logo that has a dusty blue color.

Click Apply. As you can see, the hue and depth of the color also affects readability.

You'll also want to avoid pictures with lots of fine detail and images like this that take too much effort to figure out.

Again, keep it simple, and before you make any final decisions, click FILE and Print, to get a more accurate impression of how the document will look when it's printed.

So now you have the basics of adding watermarks, but you can do a lot more with them.

If you are ready, let's dig a little deeper.

To Word, a watermark is nothing more than a header or footer that's in a different place. I'll show you what I mean.

Double-click the header of your document to open the header and footer for editing.

Now you can click the watermark, and select it. What is the significance of this?

Well, it means that now you can work with the watermark, just like any other picture or shape or object.

For example, you can press Shift and drag a corner handle to resize the image while keeping its original aspect ratio or shape. Then, you can click the center of it and move it to a new location.

Notice that the watermark changes on the other pages too.

You also have all the tools on the PICTURE TOOLS FORMAT tab.

For example, you can change the Brightness, Recolor the picture, and even add a Picture Border.

Accessing watermarks through headers and footers opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

Up next, we'll take watermarks to the next level.