How to Print Date & Time Stamps on a PDF

PDF time stamps, including date stamps, provide a way to gauge the relevance of your business data. For example, if you've prepared two versions of a report for a client, and both versions have the same name and otherwise appear identical, you can use the time stamp to quickly select the most recent version. You can insert time stamps for free with Adobe Reader, but Reader confines you to a specific time format and a generic background image. By contrast, Acrobat enables you to use custom background images, such as your company's logo, for the time stamp. Acrobat also provides abundant time formats.

Using Adobe Reader

Open the PDF that you want to insert a times tamp in, and then navigate to the page where you want to display the time stamp. Click the "View" menu, click "Comment," and then click "Annotations." Reader displays controls for adding time stamps.

Click the stamp icon in the Annotations panel, click the "Dynamic" stamp category, and then click one of the time stamp formats from the list that appears. Reader attaches the stamp to your mouse. Click the mouse to place the stamp, which shows the current date and time.

Save and close the PDF.

Using Adobe Acrobat

Open the PDF you want to add a time stamp to.

Click the "View" menu, click "Comment," and then click "Annotations." Click the Annotation panel's stamp icon, and then click the "Create" command from the Custom Stamps category.

Select your business logo or another image from the Select Image window's "File" control. Click "OK" to display the Create Custom Stamp window.

Click the "Dynamic" category from the "Category" control, and then click "OK" to create the stamp. The stamp doesn't appear at this point; you've created it, but haven't inserted it into the document.

Press "Ctrl-O," and then navigate to the folder %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\11.0\Stamps. Double-click the PDF in this folder to load it into Acrobat. This PDF contains your new stamp, which you can see by observing the image you chose for the stamp.

Click "View | Tools | Forms | Create," and then follow the prompts to designate the current PDF as a form.

Click "Text box" from the "Add New Field" control, and then click the center of your stamp image to insert the text box. Click this control's "All properties" link, and then click the "Calculate" tab of the Properties dialog box.

Click the "Custom" option, and then click "Edit." Paste the following string in the in the "Create text" area:

event.value = util.printd('hh:MM:ss, dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy', new Date());

You can also type over these formatting codes to create your own format (see Tips).

Click "OK," and then click "Close." Save and close the stamp file. Acrobat re-activates the document in which you're inserting the time stamp.

Click the Annotation panel's stamp icon again, and then click the "Dynamic" category to see a thumbnail image of your time stamp. Click that image, and then click your document to insert the time stamp in the document. Save and close the document.