How do I mark a PDF, report or presentation?

Mark a PDF report or a slide deck with a Creative Commons license by placing a notice on the title page or first slide, repeating it in the end matter of a PDF, and including it on the final slide of a presentation. Under version 4.0 you must identify the creator and designated attribution parties, provide a copyright notice, a notice referring to the license, a warranty disclaimer, and a URI or hyperlink to the work where reasonably practicable. The decisive exception: third-party content you do not control stays under its own license or default copyright protection. Mark each piece separately. Use the official Creative Commons chooser to generate a standardised notice, then confirm that every third-party element is either in the public domain, under a specific CC license, or expressly permitted.

Open the title page. It is the first thing a reader sees and the place a reuser records for credit. Write a single line below the report title: "License: CC BY 4.0, see end page for full attribution." The end page then holds the complete TASL string plus the license URI. A PDF printed or saved without hyperlinks still carries the full text, so the reader can type the URL. Skip the table of contents page. The title page and end page are the two enforceable locations.

For a downloadable PDF, embed the license URI into the metadata fields. Under File > Properties > Description, add the license URL to the "Copyright" field. This survives extraction by many document systems and does not rely on the reader reading the title page.

Repeat the full license notice on a PDF end page or colophon, exactly as the Creative Commons chooser generates it. A workable example reads: "© 2025 Your Name. This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit the official CC BY-SA 4.0 deed. Attribution: Title of Report by Your Name. Source: [source URL]." State that the license is version 4.0 International; that is the current version Creative Commons recommends for new works. Include the version in the notice, not just the code. If the report includes charts, graphs or images from other sources, each one needs its own attribution line in the end matter. A blanket statement is not enough.

First Slide and Final Slide

Place the license notice on the first slide. Use the bottom edge, below the deck title, in a smaller font. Write: "This deck is shared under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Full license at the final slide." The final slide carries the complete TASL string. A presentation shown live and not distributed as a file still needs the notice on the first slide. Audience members photographing or screen-capping that slide capture the license. Do not bury the license in a slide footer that projectors or PDF converters cut off. A font size of 10pt or 11pt on a standard 16:9 slide is readable and unobtrusive.

If your slide design repeats the footer on every slide, you may include a short form such as "CC BY 4.0" on every slide. The full license notice still belongs on slides 1 and the final slide. The end slide should also state whether the deck includes adapted content. For example: "Slides 4, 7 and 12 contain images adapted from sources listed below. All others original."

Full notice for a PDF title page or end matter:
"© 2025 Jane Doe. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit the official CC BY 4.0 deed. Attribution: Title of Report by Jane Doe. Source: [source URL]. Modifications: none."

Short notice for a slide footer:
"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | See final slide for attribution"

Notice for a presentation first slide:
"This presentation is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0. You may share it unchanged. No adaptations may be distributed. Full license terms at the final slide."

These examples follow the 4.0 requirement to include the license URI or a link where reasonably practicable. For a printed PDF that will not be viewed on a screen, write the full URL. For a digital PDF, hyperlink the license name to the deed.

Audit Every Element Before You Publish

Third-party content is the most common reason a CC-marked PDF is noncompliant. Icon sets, stock photos, data visualisations from government sources and embedded videos each arrive with their own copyright status. Before you apply a CC license to the whole document, list every piece that is not wholly your creation. For each one, record the creator, source URL, exact license and version, and any exclusions. If a piece uses a license that conflicts with your intended license for the whole work, you cannot mark the entire work under that license. An icon set under CC BY-NC 4.0 prohibits commercial use, so a report marked CC BY 4.0 cannot include that icon set.

Write Attribution Lines for Each Piece

For each third-party element, add an attribution line in the end matter that names the element, its creator, its license, and its source. A typical line reads: "Figure 3: Chart of temperature trends by Climate Data Group, used under CC BY 4.0. Source: [source URL]." Do not rely on a single blanket statement. If an element is in the public domain, mark it with the Public Domain Mark 1.0 and note that no license applies. If you cannot confirm the status of an element, exclude it from the CC-licensed work or obtain separate permission.

If your PDF or presentation contains adapted content, you must indicate that the work is an adaptation and preserve the original creator's attribution. Under version 4.0, an adaptation is work based on and modifying a licensed work in a way that requires copyright permission. Translation is normally an adaptation. Synchronising music with a moving image is expressly Adapted Material under 4.0. Format-shifting alone, such as converting a Word document to PDF, is not an adaptation. Cropping, excerpting, editing and combining may or may not create an adaptation depending on applicable copyright law. Do not declare a universal boundary.

Your notice must say the work is based on a pre-existing work and name the original creator. A practical example: "This report is an adaptation of 'Original Report Title' by Original Author, used under CC BY 4.0. The adaptation is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. New content © 2025 Your Name." The end matter must include the original work's license URI and the original author's name. Do not remove or obscure the original attribution. If you are unsure whether a specific use constitutes an adaptation, consult the official license legal code and, if the question is material to your compliance, obtain separate legal advice.

If you are marking a PDF that includes content created by someone else under a specific CC license, you cannot unilaterally upgrade that license version. A license already attached to someone else's work cannot be changed by a reuser. Keep the original license notice intact. Add your own notice only for the content you control. If you include a CC BY 2.0 image in a report you are writing, the image remains under CC BY 2.0, not 4.0. Your report's overall license applies only to the text and original graphics you contributed. The end matter must list each third-party work under its own license and version.

A collection of separate works, such as an anthology of essays each with its own license, keeps each work's license. The collection's overall license does not replace those licenses. A collection may have its own license for the arrangement and introduction, but the constituent works retain their original terms. Do not state that the entire collection is under a single CC license unless every piece is your own work and you own the rights.

Third-party attribution gets omitted. A writer creates a valuable report, applies a CC BY 4.0 license, and publishes it. A year later, the original copyright holder of an embedded infographic objects, or the licensee cannot use the work because the infographic carries an incompatible license. The writer faces a compliance problem that could have been avoided by listing every element, its source, and its license before publication. Audit every element that is not your own creation. If you cannot identify the license of a photo, chart or data set, do not include it unless you are confident it is either in the public domain or used under a valid exception or limitation such as fair use or fair dealing. That one check prevents the majority of marking errors.