CamScanner Remove PDF Watermark

Use CamScanner to remove watermarks from PDF documents while preserving the underlying text, images, and original layout. Powered by a high-precision documen...

CamScanner PDF Remove Watermark

Overview

CamScanner provides a high-precision document enhancement engine that removes watermarks from PDF documents while preserving the underlying text, images, and original layout. It intelligently detects overlaid watermarks, stamps, and translucent logos across every page and erases them, leaving the document clean and legible. The workflow is a 3-step pipeline: upload the PDF, remove watermark via remove_watermark_pdf, then download the result. For convenience, the remove-watermark step also supports a raw output mode that returns the processed PDF bytes directly, skipping the download step.

When to Use

• User wants to remove watermarks, stamps, or translucent logos from a PDF
• User has a watermarked PDF that needs to be cleaned before sharing or printing
• User wants to recover a clean copy of a watermarked PDF
• User has a watermarked PDF and needs a clean copy for OCR or further processing

Privacy & Data

Important: Privacy & Data Flow Notice

• Third-party service: This skill sends your files to CamScanner's official servers (ai-tools.camscanner.com) for processing.
• Data retention: CamScanner servers process your files in real-time. Files are not permanently stored on the server.
• Local files: Output files are saved to your local filesystem at the path you specify.

API Reference

Base URL: https://ai-tools.camscanner.com

Supported Operation

source_type	Operation	Endpoint	Output
pdf	Remove watermark (PDF)	remove_watermark_pdf	.pdf

Parameters

Field	Required	Default	Notes
file_id	yes	—	The file_id returned by upload_file for the source PDF
dpi	no	144	Rendering DPI; 144 is the recommended default
timeout_sec	no	—	Processing timeout in seconds; use 180 for long PDFs
output_mode	yes	—	"file_id" (then download separately) or "raw" (stream PDF bytes)

Step 1: Upload PDF

BASE="https://ai-tools.camscanner.com"

IN_FILE_ID=$(curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/upload_file/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
  --data-binary "@/path/to/document.pdf" | jq -r '.tool_result.data.file_id')

Response:

{
  "code": 200,
  "tool": "upload_file",
  "tool_result": {
    "success": true,
    "data": {
      "file_id": "file_1741857600_ab12cd34ef56.pdf",
      "size": 524288
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Remove Watermark

OUT_FILE_ID=$(curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/remove_watermark_pdf/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$IN_FILE_ID\",\"dpi\":144,\"timeout_sec\":180,\"output_mode\":\"file_id\"}" \
  | jq -r '.tool_result.data.file_id')

Response:

{
  "code": 200,
  "tool": "remove_watermark_pdf",
  "tool_result": {
    "success": true,
    "data": {
      "file_id": "file_1741857701_9988aabbccdd.pdf"
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Download Result

curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/download_file/execute?response_mode=raw" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$OUT_FILE_ID\"}" \
  -o /path/to/output.pdf

Critical: The response_mode=raw query parameter is required to get the binary file. Without it, the response is JSON.

Alternative: One-Shot Raw Output

If you don't need a reusable file_id for the result, pass "output_mode": "raw" to remove_watermark_pdf and save the response body directly — this combines steps 2 and 3:

curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/remove_watermark_pdf/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$IN_FILE_ID\",\"dpi\":144,\"timeout_sec\":180,\"output_mode\":\"raw\"}" \
  -o /path/to/output.pdf

Quick Reference: Complete Pipeline

Remove watermark from a PDF (three-step, keeps an output file_id):

BASE="https://ai-tools.camscanner.com"
INPUT_PDF="/path/to/document.pdf"
OUTPUT_FILE="/path/to/output.pdf"

# Upload
IN_FILE_ID=$(curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/upload_file/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
  --data-binary "@$INPUT_PDF" | jq -r '.tool_result.data.file_id')

# Remove watermark
OUT_FILE_ID=$(curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/remove_watermark_pdf/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$IN_FILE_ID\",\"dpi\":144,\"timeout_sec\":180,\"output_mode\":\"file_id\"}" \
  | jq -r '.tool_result.data.file_id')

# Download
curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/download_file/execute?response_mode=raw" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$OUT_FILE_ID\"}" \
  -o "$OUTPUT_FILE"

Or one-shot (two-step, raw PDF stream straight from remove_watermark_pdf):

BASE="https://ai-tools.camscanner.com"
INPUT_PDF="/path/to/document.pdf"
OUTPUT_FILE="/path/to/output.pdf"

# Upload
IN_FILE_ID=$(curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/upload_file/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
  --data-binary "@$INPUT_PDF" | jq -r '.tool_result.data.file_id')

# Remove watermark + download in one call
curl -sS -X POST "$BASE/v1/tools/remove_watermark_pdf/execute" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"file_id\":\"$IN_FILE_ID\",\"dpi\":144,\"timeout_sec\":180,\"output_mode\":\"raw\"}" \
  -o "$OUTPUT_FILE"

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Forgetting response_mode=raw on download	Always append ?response_mode=raw to the download URL
Wrong Content-Type on upload	Upload uses application/octet-stream, not multipart/form-data
Using GET instead of POST	All endpoints use POST
Using enhance_image for a PDF	PDFs use the dedicated remove_watermark_pdf endpoint, not enhance_image
Passing dpi or timeout_sec as strings	Both are integers — use 144 and 180, not "144" / "180"
Missing output_mode in request	Must be either "file_id" (then download separately) or "raw" (stream out)
Timeout on long PDFs	Increase timeout_sec (e.g. 180 or more) for documents with many pages
Parsing JSON when output_mode is "raw"	With raw, the response body IS the PDF — write it to a file with -o
Trying to download a file_id after raw response	raw mode returns no file_id; re-run in file_id mode if you need one

Error Handling

Check each step before proceeding:

# After upload
if [ -z "$IN_FILE_ID" ] || [ "$IN_FILE_ID" = "null" ]; then
  echo "Upload failed"; exit 1
fi

# After remove watermark (file_id mode)
if [ -z "$OUT_FILE_ID" ] || [ "$OUT_FILE_ID" = "null" ]; then
  echo "Watermark removal failed"; exit 1
fi