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Overview

When you enable watermarking for a file, Box places a semi-transparent overlay across the file’s contents which includes:
  • The current viewer’s email address or IP address (depending on whether the viewer is logged in)
  • The time of access
Watermarking can help deter unauthorized resharing of sensitive information in your Box account. When you add a watermark in Box, Box creates and displays a pixel-based watermark.  When you view a file, Box displays existing pixel-based watermarks, as well as vector-based watermarks that were created by other tools. Custom Watermarking is available for select accounts. This allows you to apply customized watermarks to either individual files, or to all files within a folder. You must be an Owner, Co-owner or Editor of a file or folder to set and remove a watermark. Watermarks can be applied to either individual files, or to all files within a folder. Watermarking is available only for Box Enterprise plans and above. Users with Editor permissions or higher can enable watermarking at the file or folder level. To disable watermarking globally, contact your Customer Success Manager/account team. View the supported file types. Currently, enabling and disabling watermarking on a folder is supported only on the Box Web app. While this setting cannot be configured on mobile, on Box Mobile watermarks are still visible. If a file is watermarked before a move/copy operation, it remains watermarked even if it is moved or copied to a non-watermarking folder.

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Applying watermarks

To watermark an individual file:
  1. In your Files window, hover on the file.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Right-click on the file, then hover on More Actions and click Watermarking, or
    • Click the ellipsis (…), then hover on More Actions and click Watermarking.
  3. Check Enable watermarking for this file.
  4. Select Save.
To watermark all files in a folder:
  1. In your Files window, hover on the folder.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Right-click on the folder, then click Settings, or
    • Click the ellipsis (…), then click Settings.
  3. Scroll down to the Watermarking section.
  4. Check Enable watermarking for this folder.
  5. In the top of your Files window, click Save Changes.
Note:
  • We recommend using longer watermark text to improve robustness and security.
  • If watermarks do not appear on watermarked file images in Grid View, try clearing your cache.

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Permissions

If watermarking is turned on for a file, people at all access levels will see the watermark when they preview the file.  This allows the person who enabled the watermarking to validate that it is turned on correctly. Watermarked files can still be edited by people who have the required permissions. Owners, Co-owners, Editors, and Viewer-Uploaders can download the original file and make edits. Viewers still see a watermark in a downloaded file. Use the table below to see how previews and downloads are handled for different access levels:
Access LevelCurrent File Version PreviewCurrent File Version Download*Previous File Versions Download*
OwnerWatermarkedNOT WatermarkedNOT Watermarked
Co-OwnerWatermarkedNOT WatermarkedNOT Watermarked
EditorWatermarkedNOT WatermarkedNOT Watermarked
Viewer- UploaderWatermarkedNOT WatermarkedNOT Watermarked
Viewer**Watermarked***Watermarked***File Inaccessible
Previewer-UploaderWatermarkedFile InaccessibleFile Inaccessible
PreviewerWatermarkedFile InaccessibleFile Inaccessible
UploaderFile InaccessibleFile InaccessibleFile Inaccessible
* Downloading watermarked videos is not currently available on mobile ** People with Viewer permissions cannot see watermarked files in Box Drive *** Not supported for iWork files
Note: Watermarks appear on the following file types for only Previewer, Previewer-Uploader, or Viewer access levels.  This is because the Box web application downloads these files when previewing them: as, as3, asm, bat, c, cc, cmake, cpp, cs, css, csv, cxx, diff, erb, groovy, h, haml, hh, htm, html, java, js, less, log, m, make, md, ml, mm, php, pl, plist, properties, py, rb, rst, sass, scala, script, scm, sml, sql, sh, tsv, txt, vi, vim, webdoc, xhtml, yaml.

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File types

Note: Box Notes, audio, flash, .msi, .exe, .zip, and 3D files do not support watermarking. Enabling watermarking prevents Previewer-Uploaders, Previewers, and Viewers from viewing and downloading these files types.

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Supported file types

The following table does not necessarily constitute a complete list of supported file types.
Text-Based Files’c’, ‘cpp’, ‘css’, ‘csv’, ‘doc’, ‘docx’, ‘gdoc’, ‘htm’, ‘html’, ‘idml’, ‘indt’, ‘java’, ‘json’, ‘log’, ‘m’, ‘md’, ‘msg’, ‘odt’, ‘pages’, ‘pdf’, ‘php’, ‘properties’, ‘py’, ‘rtf’, ‘sh’, ‘sql’, ‘tsv’, ‘txt’, ‘wpd’, ‘xml’, ‘xsd’, ‘xsl’, ‘yaml’
Presentations‘gslides’, ‘key’, odp’, ‘ppt’, ‘pptx’
Images’ai’*, ‘bmp’, ‘cr2’, ‘dng’, ‘gif’, ‘heic’, ‘jpeg’, ‘jpg’, ‘nef’, ‘png’, ‘psd’, ‘raf’, ‘svg’, ‘tga’, ‘tif’, ‘tiff’, ‘webp’, ‘xdw’, ‘xbd’ *Note: Illustrator files need to be saved in PDF compatible mode in order to preview them in Box.
Video’3g2’, ‘3gp’, ‘avi’, ‘m2v’, ‘m2ts’, ‘m4v’, ‘mkv’, ‘mov’, ‘mp4’, ‘mpeg’, ‘mpg’, ‘ogg’, ‘mts’, ‘qt’, ‘wmv’
Other‘bat’, ‘dcm’, ‘eps’, ‘gsheet’, ‘indd’, ‘numbers’, ‘ps’, ‘xls’, ‘xlsm’, ‘xlsx’

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Downloading watermarked files

IMPORTANT:When using a shared link to access watermarked content, non-collaborators must have a Box account to download watermarked files or folders.
Box for Android and Box for iOS do not support the downloading of watermarked files. If you are a Co-Owner, Editor, Viewer-Uploader, or the Owner of a file, the file downloads as a normal, non-watermarked version. Non-collaborators cannot download watermarked files or folders if they are using a password-protected shared link to access the watermarked content. Note: Downloading watermarked video files may take additional time due to the processing involved.

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Watermarking on mobile

Watermarking capabilities can be enabled and disabled at file and folder levels on mobile. There is also the ability to: Note:
  • Permissions remain the same as for watermarking on other platforms
  • On mobile, you cannot currently mark watermarked videos for offline use
  • Downloading watermarked videos is not possible on mobile

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Watermark a file or folder

  1. Next to the file or folder, select the ellipsis (…).
  2. Select Watermarking.
  3. Select Enable watermarking for this file/folder.
  4. The selected file, or all applicable files within the folder, will be watermarked.
Note:
  • To remove the watermark, follow the same process but toggle Enable watermarking for this file/folder off
  • Watermarked files and folders can be made available offline. After completing the watermarking process, select the ellipsis (…) next to the file or folder, then select Make Available Offline

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Viewer permissions

If you are a Viewer of a file:
  • You cannot download watermarked files directly from the folder view. Instead, you must first preview the file to generate the watermarked version
  • You cannot preview any file types that do not support watermarking - even if they’re in a watermarked folder
  • You can only download watermarked files individually (not as part of a folder download)
  • Video files downloaded with viewer permissions will retain watermarks. Version history will not be accessible; only the current version can be downloaded. These watermarks can include identifying information (such as an email address, timestamp, and IP address) or can be customized. They cannot be removed by the recipient
  • Watermarked text files download in PDF format
  • Watermarked image files download in the file’s original format
  • Box Drive and Box for EMM do not support the downloading of watermarked files

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Watermark display options

Admin users can change how watermarks are displayed:
  1. Log in to your Box account and navigate to the Admin Console.
  2. In the left sidebar, click Enterprise Settings then Content & Sharing.
  3. Scroll down to theWatermarking section.
  4. Select from Vector-based and rasterized watermarking, or Rasterized watermarking only.
  5. At the top of the Content & Sharing tab, click Save to apply the changes.
Two options are available for how Watermarks are displayed. These are:
  • Vector-based and rasterized watermarking:
    • Vector-based watermarking applies only to text files but provides infinite resolution, inclusion in search, clickable links and a very small file size overhead. Rasterized watermarking will be used on all image files.
    • Provides better fidelity for files where possible, based on file type.
  • Rasterized watermarking only:
    • Can provide increased security as rasterized watermarking is harder to remove without damaging the underlying content.
    • Lower resolution previews can happen when Rasterized watermarking only is applied.

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Troubleshooting

If the content is watermarked and there is an issue previewing or downloading it:
  1. Check required permission levels to preview or download the file.
  2. Check if it is a supported file type that is selected.