How do I add a single file letterhead background to overlay on multipage document

Eric Potter
Eric Potter Posts: 6
in Peer Support

As the question is I need to add a letterhead background (.jpg or PDF) to a multi-page PDF document. This is so easy in Adobe but seems to be extremely difficult with Bluebeam software. Please don't give me work arounds, I just want the software to do it properly.

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Answers

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87
    • Insert Letterhead on page 1
    • Select Letterhead and click Properties - Make sure letterhead has fill color off, or transparent
    • Right click, select Order, Send to Back.
    • Right click, select Apply to Pages, All Pages

    ~j

  • Eric Potter
    Eric Potter Posts: 6
    edited January 21

    Jes, Thank you but I'm not able to get this to work. I will layout my steps and you may see my error.

    1. Open 9 page PDF
    2. Go to Document menu and select - Insert → Pages from Document
    3. Insert Letterhead PDF page
    4. I select the Letterhead page from the Thumbnails to select it.
      1. click Properties icon on the left nav and it shows nothing.
    5. Look at computer and go why……
  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    OK. I must be more precise with my instructions…

    Going back to my post, my edit is:

    • PASTE Letterhead into page 1 AS A (TRANSPARENT) IMAGE.
    • Select Letterhead IMAGE and click Properties - Make sure letterhead has fill color off, or transparent
    • Right click, select Order, Send to Back.
    • Right click, select Apply to Pages, All Pages

    See if that works better, @Eric Potter . The reason your properties were null is because you inserted the letterhead as a PDF Page. The rest of these steps would not work with that workflow.

    ~j

  • Eric Potter
    Eric Potter Posts: 6

    @Jes Stafford Thank you, this is a work around and did somewhat work but it's very un-user friendly and does not snap to page size so you're eyeballing it.

    This is pretty shameful for an enterprise PDF software can't do a simple background function. We can't be the only company that would like to use this for submittal packets and proposals in addition to our project management use for markups.

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    Yep. not printing the document with a digital letterhead is, by definition, a work around.… getting used to the process is a pretty minimal tradeoff for all the AEC industry functionality that BB offers over Acrobat, IMO.

    I am only letting you know how I would do it. Maybe someone else more intimate with the software has a better way to manage backgrounds, templates, or like that.

    ~j

  • Eric Potter
    Eric Potter Posts: 6

    The sad thing is their Overlay function would work if they allowed one page to overlay all the other pages. They could make it an "Added Feature".

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    Sounds the same as the step "Right click, select Apply to Pages, All Pages"

    ~j

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    The Overlay function in Bluebeam is mainly to coordinate multiple sheets from multiple disciplines/vendors.

    ~j

  • bwiginton
    bwiginton Posts: 15
    edited January 22

    I agree with you, Eric. I recently tried making a report template for our company that had a single blank page that could be copied as many times as a user needed to fill the report. It is crazy to me that Bluebeam isn't capable of having headers, footers, and page #'s that work more like Microsoft Word, where it automates page numbering and can easily work with headers/footers the way Word does.

    Let me be clear - I HATE MS Word, but in this area, it is better than Bluebeam for report-type documents.

    The header/footer feature in Bluebeam is NOT very user friendly. It was super cool 10 years ago when transitioning from paper to digital docs, but in 2025 it feels archaic.

    I feel like these features need a big upgrade.

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    So, guys, we use so many different softwares to get the best of breed from each one, importing and exporting in and out of each until we pair down an efficient workflow to produce the required deliverables (often paperless).

    I have a hard time understanding and relating what your frustrations are which probably means I do not understand the problem as well as you. Got PICTURES or SCREENSHOTS?

    Keep this discussion going and I'd bet someone gets in here and offers a better solution that I have above.

    ~j

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    @Marco M may know a better way….

    ~j

  • Eric Potter
    Eric Potter Posts: 6

    So, guys, we use so many different softwares to get the best of breed from each one, importing and exporting in and out of each until we pair down an efficient workflow to produce the required deliverables (often paperless).

    This is what I'm trying to get away from. We are a SMB construction company and its bleed by a thousand cuts right now with OpEx costs for subscriptions on software. I am starting to demand companies do better and deliver better products for my money. We currently have Bluebeam licenses for our sales staff and will probably remove the sales department if we don't get a feature soon similar to how Adobe handles backgrounds.

  • Jes Stafford
    Jes Stafford Posts: 87

    @Harry Potter May know a better way… Are you guys related? 8-)

    ~j

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