Watermarking Files

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.

Watermarking

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 only available for Enterprise Box accounts. This feature is "on" globally by default and can be enabled at the file or folder level by people with editor permission levels and above. To disable this feature, please 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.

Applying Watermarks

To watermark an individual file:

1. In your All 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 All 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 All Files window, click Save Changes.

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:

* People with Viewer permissions cannot see watermarked files in Box Drive

**Not supported for iWork files

File Types

Supported File Types

The following table does not necessarily constitute a complete list of supported file types.

During the Video Watermarking Beta release, supported file types are: '3g2', '3gp', 'avi', 'm2v', 'm2ts', 'm4v', 'mkv', 'mov', 'mp4', 'mpeg', 'mpg', 'ogg', 'mts', 'qt', and 'wmv'.

Downloading watermarked files

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.

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
• For most file types, watermarked files over 500 MB cannot be downloaded. This is because a representation cannot be generated for files this size. Exceptions include supported video files, where downloading watermarked files can still be possible for larger file sizes
• 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)
• 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

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 the Watermarking 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.

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