Lay a letterhead, stationery or stamp page under or over the pages of a finished document, with a different first sheet.
Overlay PDF (Letterhead)
Lay a letterhead, stationery or stamp page under or over the pages of a finished document, with a different first sheet.
Both PDFs are opened and combined in this browser tab, and the finished file is assembled there too. Neither the document nor your letterhead is uploaded.
A word processor will put your letterhead on page one, but an invoice or contract that comes out of an accounting system usually arrives as a bare PDF, and reprinting it onto pre-printed paper means finding the paper. This does the same job to the file. The stationery becomes a layer of the document, so the logo, the rule down the side and the footer of registered details land on every page at the size the designer drew them. The first sheet can carry the full letterhead and the rest a lighter continuation version. Each overlay page is embedded once and reused, so a forty-page letter does not carry forty copies of the logo, and all of it happens in this browser tab.
Features
Place the overlay under the content, over it, or over it with a Multiply blend for scanned pages
A two-page overlay can be a full letterhead for the first sheet and a lighter continuation sheet for the rest
Cycle a multi-page overlay through the document, or match it page for page
Every page, page 1 only, all but page 1, or a list such as 2-5, 9
Fit inside, stretch to the edges, or place at its own size and centre it
Opacity from 5% to 100%, for a faint background or a solid stamp
A composed preview of the first affected page, drawn from both files as they are
A PNG or JPEG can stand in for the overlay PDF, read at 96 pixels to the inch
How to use the Overlay PDF (Letterhead)
Drop the document PDF, then the letterhead, stationery or stamp
Choose whether it sits under the content, over it, or over it multiplied
Pick the pages, and for a multi-page overlay how its pages are used
Check the composed preview, then apply and download
Example
Input
invoice-2041.pdf (6 pages) + stationery.pdf (page 1 letterhead, page 2 continuation), under the content
Output
invoice-2041-overlay.pdf — the full letterhead on page 1, the continuation sheet on pages 2 to 6
Two overlay pages are stored once each and drawn six times between them.
Common errors & troubleshooting
The letterhead is invisible under a scanned page. — A scan is one solid picture covering the whole sheet, so an underlay has nowhere to show through. Choose "Over, multiplied": the overlay goes on top, but its white areas vanish, as though the ink had been printed on the sheet.
The logo came out squashed. — "Stretch to the page" fills the edges and ignores proportions. Use "Fit inside" when the overlay and the document are different sizes, or "Original size, centred" when they already match.
The later pages came out plain. — "Page by page" stops when the overlay runs out of pages. Use "Page 1 first, page 2 on the rest", or "Its page 1 on every page", to cover a document longer than the overlay.
It refuses the overlay and mentions a blank page. — That page of the overlay PDF has nothing drawn on it at all, so there is nothing to embed. Drop the empty pages with Organize PDF and load it again.
Frequently asked questions
Does the letterhead stay sharp if the document is printed at A3?
Yes, when the overlay is a PDF: its shapes and type are re-drawn at whatever size the printer works at. A PNG or JPEG overlay is a picture and will soften, so give it enough pixels for the area it has to cover.
How much bigger does the file get if the stationery goes on 200 pages?
Hardly any. Each overlay page is stored once and referenced from every page that uses it, so the cost is one copy of the artwork plus a few bytes per page.
Is the text under a full-page background still selectable and searchable?
Yes. The document's own content is left exactly as it was — the overlay is added as a separate layer in front of it or behind it, so the text objects are untouched.
Can the first sheet carry a different design from the rest, like real letterhead paper?
That is what a two-page overlay is for. Page 1 of the overlay goes on the first sheet and page 2 on every sheet after it, which is how printed stationery sets are made.
Will a landscape or quarter-turned page still line up with the overlay?
It will. Both files are measured as they are displayed, so a page with a rotation set on it, or a crop box that trims its edges, receives the overlay where the eye expects it rather than where the raw coordinates sit.
Related tools
Watermark PDF — Add a diagonal text watermark to every page.
Add Image to PDF — Place a logo, photo or stamp on chosen PDF pages with size, position and opacity control.