PDF Tools
Stamp page numbers into a PDF in the corner you choose, starting from any number, leaving cover pages blank. The preview is rendered from the output file itself, so what you see is what downloads.
Overview
Stamp page numbers into a PDF: choose the corner, choose the wording, start from any number, and leave a cover page or two unnumbered without breaking the count. The preview is rendered from the output file itself rather than drawn over a picture of the page, so the number you see is in the place it will print.
Numbering a PDF sounds mechanical and is not quite. A page number is what somebody cites when they say the figure is on page four, so the two questions worth answering before you start are which page counts as page one, and what a total refers to. Both have a defensible answer and both are settings here rather than assumptions.
The geometry is the part that goes wrong quietly. A PDF page can carry a rotation that no reader ever sees, and a number placed without accounting for it comes out sideways in the margin. A print-ready page has a crop box smaller than the sheet, and a margin measured from the wrong box puts the number in the bleed, off everything the reader looks at. Both are handled, and both are asserted rather than assumed.
The file is opened, numbered and saved in this browser. That matters most for exactly the documents that need numbering — a contract bundle, a set of accounts, a tender response — which are the ones least suited to being uploaded to a stranger's server for a cosmetic change.
Step by step
Pick the file from your device. It is opened by your browser and never uploaded.
Choose a format — a bare number, Page 1 of 12, or your own wording — and where on the page it sits.
Start from any number to continue a sequence, and leave a cover page or two unnumbered without breaking the count.
The preview is rendered from the file you are about to save, so the number is exactly where it will print.
Background
A page number drawn into a PDF becomes part of the page's content stream, in the same way a paragraph of text is. That is what makes it reliable: it prints, it survives the file being merged into a larger bundle, and it appears identically in every reader. The trade is that it is permanent. Nothing here can take it out again, which is why the original file is worth keeping if an unnumbered copy might be needed later.
The alternative — an annotation layered over the page — is what some viewers add when you type into a document, and it is the wrong mechanism for numbering. Annotations can be hidden, flattened away, or dropped when a file is processed by something that only cares about content, which means a number that was there when you sent the bundle may not be there when it is printed at the other end.
The first real decision is what counts as page one. A report with a cover and a contents page is usually numbered from the first page of body text, so the physical third sheet is page one. That is not a formatting preference: it decides what somebody means when they cite page one, and getting it wrong makes every reference in an index or a covering letter point one or two pages off.
The second is what a total counts. If three pages of front matter are unnumbered, "Page 4 of 12" on a fifteen-sheet document is consistent — the twelve is the highest number that appears, and a reader can confirm it by turning to the last page. Printing "of 15" instead names a number that appears nowhere, and the first person to check will assume pages are missing.
Then there is the geometry, which is where tools quietly differ. A PDF page has a media box, which is the sheet, and often a crop box, which is what the reader is actually shown; print-ready files routinely have a crop box that is both smaller and offset from the origin. A page can also carry a rotation, applied by the viewer at display time, which means the edge the reader calls the bottom may be the right-hand side of the coordinate system the number is drawn in. Neither is visible in a preview until the number is in the wrong place.
Reference
Six settings, and the first three are about the document rather than the design. A number in the right typeface in the wrong sequence is still wrong.
Where page one begins
How many leading pages get no number. Front matter is usually excluded, which makes the first page of body text page one — and decides what every later citation refers to.
Required
The starting number
What the first numbered page is called. Not always one: a document that continues from another, or a section extracted from a longer bundle, needs to pick up where the previous part stopped.
Required
The wording
A bare number is right for a report; "Page 4 of 12" is right for anything that might be printed, stapled and separated, because it tells a reader whether they are holding all of it.
Required
The position
Bottom centre is conventional and safest, because it collides with the least content. Outer corners suit documents that will be bound, where the inner margin disappears into the spine.
Required
The margin
Measured from the visible edge, not the sheet edge. Too small and it falls inside the unprintable border most printers impose; too large and it walks into the body text.
Optional
The size
Nine or ten points reads as a page number. Larger competes with the content, smaller disappears when the document is photocopied — which contract bundles frequently are.
Optional
What is not adjustable
The font and the colour. Helvetica in black is legible everywhere, embeds no font data, and photocopies; a numbering tool with a colour picker is solving a problem nobody has.
Optional
Who it helps
A bundle that cannot be cited by page is a bundle nobody can discuss. Numbering after merging, rather than before, is what makes the sequence continuous across the documents it was built from.
A report printed and passed around loses its order immediately without numbers. "Page 4 of 12" also tells the reader whether the copy they are holding is complete.
Sets of accounts and supporting schedules are referenced by page constantly, and are usually assembled from several exports that each started their own numbering at one.
Formal processes ask for specific answers at specific references. Unnumbered pages make a scorer hunt, and anything they cannot find scores nothing.
Appendices and scanned material arrive without numbers and have to be citable. Starting the count at a chosen number is what lets an appendix continue from the main document.
Scanned pages often carry a rotation from the feeder, which is exactly the case where a naive numbering tool puts the number sideways in the margin.
Do it properly
Numbering the parts and then merging produces a bundle that restarts at one three times. Merge first, then number once, and the sequence is continuous by construction.
Excluding a cover and contents page is conventional, and it changes what every reference in your covering letter means. Make it a decision rather than a default you discover later.
Paper gets separated. A total tells a reader whether the copy in their hand is complete, which a bare number cannot, and it costs one setting.
Numbers become part of the page and cannot be taken out again. If a page might need replacing or the sequence might change, the clean file is the one to edit from.
Rotation and crop boxes mean the same settings produce different results on different files. Looking at the rendered output is the only reliable check, which is why it is rendered from the real file here.
An inner margin disappears into a spine or a staple. If the document will be bound, the outer corner keeps every number readable without opening it flat.
A PDF page has no reserved footer, so a number lands on top of whatever occupies that space. Increase the margin rather than shrinking the number when it collides with a table or a footnote.
Avoid these
Numbering each document before merging
Merge first, then number the whole bundle once. Otherwise the sequence restarts at every join, which is worse than no numbers because it looks deliberate.
Counting the cover as page one
Skip the front matter and start the count at the first page of body text. Everything that cites a page — a contents list, an index, a covering letter — depends on which sheet page one is.
Printing a total that counts unnumbered pages
Let the total be the highest number actually printed. "of 15" on a document whose last number reads 12 is the kind of discrepancy a careful reader treats as missing pages.
Assuming a page is upright
Place the number relative to the page as displayed, including its rotation. Scanned documents frequently carry a quarter-turn, and a number drawn without accounting for it reads vertically up the margin.
Measuring the margin from the sheet edge
Measure from the crop box, which is what the reader is shown. On a print-ready file with bleed, a margin taken from the media box puts the number outside the trimmed page entirely.
Setting the margin too small
Keep it at roughly half an inch or more. Most printers cannot mark the outer few millimetres of a sheet, so a number placed too close to the edge simply does not come out.
Expecting to remove the numbers later
Treat numbering as final and keep the original. The number is drawn into the page content, which is exactly what makes it reliable — and what makes it permanent.
FAQ
The Add Page Numbers to PDF is at the top of this page — free, no signup, nothing uploaded.
Guides
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