WaterMark PDF for WooCommerce – Stamp PDFs with Customer Data

November 27, 2023

WaterMark PDF for WooCommerce – Stamp PDFs with Customer Data Plugin

Protect your intellectual property! Watermark PDF for WooCommerce allows WooCommerce site administrators to apply custom watermarks to PDFs upon sale.

Watermark PDF is a plugin that adds a watermark to every page of your sold PDF file(s). The watermark is customizable with font face, font color, font size, placement, and text. Not only that, but since the watermark is added when the download button is clicked (either on the customer’s order confirmation page or email), the watermark can include customer-specific data such as the customer’s first name, last name, and email. Your watermark is highly customizable and manipulatable, practically magic!

Upon WooCommerce purchase download link, this plugin uses the open source TCPDI and TCPDF libraries to customize your PDF. This process isn’t fool-proof, but works well in many cases. You may encounter problems if your PDF is malformed (bad PDF syntax), encrypted, web-optimized, linearized, or if your server cannot handle the memory load of PDF processing.

Please note you must have WooCommerce plugin installed and activated for this plugin to work. This plugin watermarks WooCommerce PDF products when downloaded using WooCommerce download links.

If have a WordPress site and need to watermark PDFs, but do not have WooCommerce, check out WP TCPDF Bridge.

Features:

Watermark only designated PDF downloads (as specified by you), or all PDF downloads from your site
Files do not need to be in a specific directory
Customizable watermark placement can be moved all over the page, allowing for different paper sizes (such as letter, A4, legal, etc)
Watermark is applied to all pages of every PDF purchased (upgrade for more control)
Watermarks upon click of customer’s order confirmation page link, email order confirmation link, or My Account page download links
Dynamic customer data inputs (customer first name, last name, email, order paid date, and phone)
Choice of font face, color, size and placement (horizontal line of text anywhere on the page)
Compatible up to PHP 8.2

= Premium (paid) version features: {#premium}

The free version is enough for some people, but Watermark PDF for WooCommerce Premium offers helpful extra features in addition to free features:

Optionally password protect and/or set PDF permissions (copy, annotate, or modify, etc) while also encrypting PDF files
Additional dynamic customer data input (business name, address, order number, product name, quantity of product), and filter hooks for adding even more
Test watermark and/or manually watermark a file on the fly, from the admin panel
Keep original file name
Begin watermark on selected page of PDF document (to avoid watermarking a cover page, for example), and/or select end page
Watermark every page, odd pages, or even pages
Watermark all PDF files with same settings OR set individual watermarks/passwords per product or even per product variation
Two rotatable watermark locations on one page
Semi-opaque (transparent) watermarks – hide your watermarks completely if desired
RTL (right to left) watermarking
Use of some HTML tags to style your output, including text-align CSS styling (right, center, left is default), links (<a>), bold (<strong>), italic (<em>)…
Additional text formatting options, such as font color and style (bold, italics) using HTML
Line-wrapping, forced breaks with <p> and <br /> tags
Preserves external embedded PDF links despite watermarking; internal links are not preserved (use the WooStamper PDF plugin for this feature)
Upload and use your own font for stamping. Also, hooks to further customize font use
Filter hooks to add 1D and 2D barcodes (including QR codes)

Check out the full-featured version of this plugin! WaterMark PDF is the only watermarker for WordPress which includes necessary libraries (so you don’t have to ask your host to load them), is compatible with PHP 7, and watermarks ALL versions of PDFs (not just older versions).

Installation

Minimum Requirements

WordPress 4.9 or greater
WooCommerce 4.0 and newer
PHP version 5.6 or greater

We recommend your host supports:

WordPress Memory limit of 64 MB or greater (usually <=512MB works fine)
PHP max_execution_time up to 60 seconds (30 should be fine)
If you have large PDF files and/or heavy download traffic, you may need to pay for beefier hosting with more CPUs. A shared hosting plan might not cut it.

To install plugin

Upload the entire “waterwoo-pdf” folder to the “/wp-content/plugins/” directory.
Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.
Visit WooCommerce->Settings->Watermark tab to set your plugin preferences.
Please test your watermarking by making mock purchases before going live to make sure it works and looks great!
Note: for this to work you might need to have pretty URLs enabled from the WP settings. Otherwise a 404 error might be thrown.

To remove plugin:

Deactivate plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Delete plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Screenshots

Screenshot of the settings page, as a Woocommerce settings tab.

FAQ

Something is wrong

Is WooCommerce installed, and do you have a PDF product in your shop to watermark?
Have you checked the box at the top of your settings page (Woocommerce -> Settings -> Watermark) so that watermarking is enabled?
Have you entered your PDF file names correctly in the second field if you’ve entered any at all?
Is your Y fine-tuning adjustment off the page? Read more below under “Why does the watermark go off the page, create blank pages?”.
Check your WP debug logs (link to instructions below). If logs suggest your PDF is “goofy” or “template does not exist,” try using Apple Preview application to resave your PDF by clicking “Export as PDF” in the menu. Preview might fix bad PDF syntax and allow your PDF to be processed for watermarking.
It may also help to increase your PHP time limit and memory limits if they are set low. Server limitations can stop this plugin from functioning well.

Further things to try:

Make sure your WooCommerce downloads work WITHOUT WaterWoo activated, to narrow the problem.
Try watermarking a different PDF (one you didn’t create). If your PDF has goofy syntax (and many do – correct PDF syntax is “optional” for some PDF builders), WaterWoo will not be able to read it. Look into using WooStamper instead
Read through the support forum. Tip: it has a search feature! Your answer is probably there by now since this plugin has been around a long time.

Please do get in touch with your issues via the WordPress.org support forum before leaving negative feedback about this free plugin.

If requesting help using the WordPress.org support forum, please state which versions WordPress/WooCommerce/WaterMark PDF you are using, and what error messages if any you are seeing. You will find more detailed error messaging if you turn on WordPress debugging. Screenshots and clear descriptions of the steps it takes to reproduce your problem are also very helpful. Please also make your support request TITLE descriptive. If the answer to your question can be found on this page, you might be waiting a while to hear from me, as I must prioritize support requests. Thanks for understanding.

If you get the message “Sorry, we were unable to prepare this file for download,” please check your WP debug logs for more details.

Do not use the WordPress.org support forum for help with the Premium (paid) version of WaterMark PDF – that is against WordPress.org rules.

Where do I change watermark settings?

You can find the WaterMark PDF settings page by clicking on the “settings” link under the Watermark PDF for WooCommerce plugin title on your WordPress plugins panel, or by navigating to the WooCommerce->Settings->Watermark tab.

My watermark isn’t English

Select the “Deja Vu,” “Furat,” or “M Sung” font in the plugin settings panel if your language uses accent characters and find out if one supports characters in your language.

A primary reason watermarks do not show up is when the watermark contains special characters but a font which doesn’t support those characters is in use. If none of the included fonts are subsetted for your language characters, you will need to programmatically add fonts yourself or look into purchasing the Premium version of this plugin, which supports font uploads.

How do I test my watermark?

Maybe set your PDF to $0 (free) and “Privately Published”. Or maybe create a coupon in your Woocommerce shop to allow 100% free purchases. Don’t share this coupon code with anyone! Test your watermark by purchasing PDFs from your shop using the coupon. It’s a bit more tedious. If you want an easier go of it (on-the-fly testing), purchase the Premium version of this plugin.

Why does the watermark go off the page, create blank pages?

Your watermark text string is too big or long for the page, and goes off it! Try decreasing font size or using the Y fine tuners to move the watermark back onto the page. Try lowering your “y-axis” value. This number corresponds to how many millimeters you want the watermark moved down the page. For example, if your PDF page is 11 inches tall, your Y-axis setting should be a deal less than 279.4mm in order for a watermark to show. The built-in adjustments on the settings page ultimately allow for watermarking on all document sizes. You may need to edit your watermark if it is too verbose.

You can use a negative integer value for your Y-tuner and measure up from the bottom of the page. This is especially helpful if your PDF has variable sized pages.

Where do the watermarked files go?

They are generated with a unique name and stored in the same folder as your original WordPress/Woo product media upload (usually wp-content/uploads/year/month/file). The unique name includes the order number and a time stamp. If your end user complains of not being able to access their custom PDF for some reason (most often after their max number of downloads is exceeded), you can find it in that folder, right alongside your original.

If you are using Woo FORCED downloads, the plugin attempts to delete the watermarked files after being delivered. This isn’t 100% reliable since it works on PHP shutdown. If you don’t like attempted deletion, you can change it with the ‘wwpdf_do_cleanup’ filter hook (set it to FALSE).

Will Watermark PDF for WooCommerce watermark images?

Watermark PDF for WooCommerce is intended to watermark PDF (.pdf) files. If you are specifically looking to watermark image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .etc), you may want to look into a plugin such as Image Watermark.

Does this work for ePub/Mobi files

No, sorry. This plugin is just for PDF files.

The plugin seems to break my PDF

This plugin bridges WooCommerce and the open-source PDF reading TCPDI and PDF writing TCPDF library. WaterMark PDF functions by parsing/reading your PDF into memory the best it can, then adding a watermark to the PDF syntax and outputting a revised file. Between the reading and output, certain features may be lost and other features (interactive PDF elements like internal links and fillable forms) will be lost. This is a limitation of the open-source third-party library used AND the wild-west nature of PDF syntax. It is not the fault of WaterWoo, which simply connects those libraries to WooCommerce. If you are serious about watermarking and/or encrypting complex PDF files, consider purchasing WooStamper. Ultimately, Watermark PDF for WooCommerce is best for simple, smaller-sized and well-formed PDFs.

Is there a fallback in case watermarking fails?

Yes, you can serve the file untouched if watermarking fails, and avoid any error messages, by using the following filter code in your (child) theme functions.php file:

add_filter( 'wwpdf_serve_unwatermarked_file', '__return_true' );

If you do not know how to edit your functions.php file, you can use the Code Snippets plugin to easily add this code to your WP site frontend.

Changelog

3.3.5 – 27 Nov 2023

Separate constructor and main do_watermark() method in class WWPDF_Watermark
Remove CTA, which also removes need for all CSS/JS
Update integration with WC settings API
Testing with WC 8.3, PHP 8.2

3.3.4 – 14 Oct 2023

Remove unused, auto-generated js/css files
Update collaborators

3.3.3 – 28 Aug 2023

Remove register_activation_hook which wasn’t used anymore plus was attached to a hook where it wasn’t fired anyway
Tweak – improve exception handling and error feedback from external libraries (TCPDI/TCPDF) on failed downloads
Compatibility testing
Update POT file

3.3.2 – 28 July 2023

Testing with WooCommerce v7.9
PHP 8.2 compatibility tweak in lib/tcpdf/include/tcpdf_fonts.php
Rework how compatibility is checked – before plugin is loaded
Deprecate several hooks in the free version. While I love open source, I also need to be able to support myself. The paid (Premium) version includes these filter hooks. You can continue using them free but they will disappear at the next breaking update. Thanks for understanding.

3.3.1 – 28 June 2023

Testing with WooCommerce v7.8

3.3 – 9 June 2023

Use TCPDF Write() arguments to center watermark, not GetStringWidth(), add ‘wwpdf_write_URL’ and ‘wwpdf_write_align’ filter hooks to the TCPDF Write() method call

3.2.2 – 1 June 2023

Confirm PHP 8.1 compatibility and apply some TCPDF patches. Unfortunately no TCPDF update available for 8.2 compatibility yet
Fix – where $_footer_y value sometimes not set
Tweak – enqueue plugin admin JS only on Woo pages
Add some Premium settings to the Free settings page for upsell (cuz hey I’m broke maintaining this for free nearly 10 years!)
Standardize setting names between free and paid plugin versions for smoother upgrade (because 1 person complained after ten years and I’m nice like that)

3.2.1 – 5 May 2023

Fix for when Footer Y adjustment changes page-by-page (PDF page orientation/size changes)

3.2 – 17 March 2023

Update TCPDF to version 6.6.2 with namespacing
Move several TCPDF pdf setup functions outside page loop
Testing with WC v7.5

3.1.4 – 20 February 2023

Testing with WC v7.4

3.1.3 – 3 November 2022

Testing with WC v7.0 & WP 6.1
Update TCPDF
Remove large status.txt file from TCPDF installation

3.1.2 – 17 June 2022

Testing with WC version 6.6

3.1.1

Tweak – set TCPDF variables print_header and print_footer to false

3.1

TCPDF update to version 6.4.4, with PHP 8.1 compatibility
Testing with WordPress 6 and WooCommerce 6.5
WooCommerce requires PHP 7.2; therefore, this dependent plugin requires PHP 7.2
More careful checks with class_exists() and constant renaming; checks for premium version on activation – to avoid conflicts
Dismissible CTA update

Older changes are found in the changelog.txt file in the plugin directory.