Rich Text Format (RTF) files are commonly used due to their compatibility across various text editors, office tools, and platforms. These documents may contain embedded image watermarks, often added to show branding, confidentiality, or organizational identity. When preparing documents for clients, archiving, or publishing, such watermarks may need to be removed to maintain a clean and neutral presentation. If you want to remove image watermark from RTF using Python, the available Python-compatible document-processing API provides a practical and accurate approach to detecting and clearing these images automatically. This tutorial guides you through the steps required to locate watermark images and erase them with precision. It also explains how to delete image watermark in RTF using Python so you can manage document cleanup without relying on slow or repetitive manual editing.

Steps to Remove Image Watermark from RTF Using Python

1. Install GroupDocs.Watermark for Python via .NET using pip so you can process and remove image watermarks.
2. Import the groupdocs.watermark package together with the groupdocs.watermark.search.searchcriteria module.
3. Load the RTF file by creating a Watermarker object within a with block.
4. Initialize an ImageDctHashSearchCriteria instance and provide the reference image you want to match.
5. Adjust the permitted difference value to define how closely images must match.
6. Scan the RTF document for watermark images that satisfy the criteria and remove the detected items.
7. Save the modified RTF file without the watermark by calling watermarker.save().

The Python-friendly document-cleaning library used in this workflow makes it straightforward to detect and remove image-based watermarks from RTF documents. It works by comparing your reference image with visual elements inside the file using DCT hashing, which helps identify images even if they have been resized, slightly modified, or positioned in different areas of the document. By adjusting the similarity threshold, you can fine-tune how strict the matching should be, giving you more accuracy and control over the removal process. This method avoids interfering with other images or structural content within the file. By following the provided steps, you can automate Python code to remove image watermark from RTF and simplify the cleanup of documents used for distribution, reporting, or long-term storage.

Code to Remove Image Watermark from RTF Using Python

Once the watermark has been removed, the RTF document becomes much easier to repurpose or share without exposing internal branding or unnecessary graphics. By adjusting the matching sensitivity, you can accurately detect various forms of the same watermark, even when it appears in scaled, compressed, or slightly altered versions. This makes the approach suitable for files generated from templates, automated systems, or mixed editing environments where watermark consistency may vary. Ultimately, this guide shows how to clear image watermark in RTF using Python and offers a reliable, repeatable way to produce clean, well-formatted documents ready for editing, printing, or wider distribution.

If you’re frequently working with Word files and need to clean up embedded graphics, check out our detailed tutorial on remove image watermark from DOCX using Python to learn how to detect, target, and erase logo watermarks from DOCX documents programmatically.