Add Page Numbers to PDF

Page numbers are easy to forget until someone says "see the table on page 14" and nobody can find it. Reports, catalogs, manuals, legal bundles and merged PDFs all need them, and the original file is often a scan or an export you cannot easily edit. This tool stamps page numbers onto an existing PDF without touching anything else on the page.

Everything happens in your browser with pdf-lib and pdf.js. The PDF is not uploaded, and the preview you see is drawn from the same code that writes the final file, so what you see is what you get.

How to add page numbers to a PDF

1. Drop the PDF on the box at the top of this page, or click it and choose the file. A preview of the first page appears on the right (below the options on a phone).
2. Click a Position: top left, top, top right, bottom left, bottom or bottom right. Bottom center is selected to start with.
3. Pick a Format: 1, Page 1, Page 1 of N or 1/N.
4. Set Start at if the first number should not be 1, and the Font size in points (11 is a good body-text size).
5. Set the Distance from edge in millimeters and a Color, and choose Helvetica, Times or Courier.
6. Tick Skip the first page (cover) if page 1 should stay clean.
7. Check the preview. Use the arrows under it to look at other pages. The line under the options confirms the first and last numbers, for example "Page 2 gets Page 1 of 11, page 12 gets Page 11 of 11."
8. Click Add page numbers and download the file, named after your original with -numbered added.

Formats and how N is counted

N is the last number printed in the file. With the defaults that is simply the page count. When you skip the cover or change the start number, N follows the numbers you actually print, so the sequence always ends with "of N" on the last page:

• 12 pages, skip the cover, start at 1: page 2 shows Page 1 of 11, page 12 shows Page 11 of 11.
• 20 pages, start at 31: page 1 shows Page 31 of 50, page 20 shows Page 50 of 50.

The second case shows the one catch: if this file is chapter 2 of a 120-page book, "of 50" is not what you want. For chapters numbered as part of a larger document, use the plain 1 format with the right start number.

Position, size and margins

The distance from the edge is measured from the page edge to the outside of the number: the bottom of the text for bottom positions, the top of the text for top positions, and the side for left and right positions. The default 12 mm (about half an inch) sits comfortably inside the margin of most documents.

If the file will be printed, keep the number at least 8 mm from the edge. Most office printers cannot print the outer quarter inch or so of the paper, and a number placed closer can be cut off or shifted.

Double-sided printing

Printed books often put numbers on the outer corner, so odd pages have them on the right and even pages on the left. This tool places every number in the same spot on every page and has no mirrored option. For a booklet or anything printed on both sides, choose bottom center or top center: the number then sits in the same place on the left and right pages and never ends up hidden in the binding.

Rotated, landscape and mixed pages

PDFs often mix page shapes: a landscape table in the middle of a portrait report, a page stored sideways with a rotation setting, or a scan that was cropped. The tool places each number based on how the page is actually shown in a viewer, not how it is stored. A bottom right number is at the bottom right of every page as you read it, upright, including landscape and rotated pages. If a page has been cropped, the number goes inside the visible area, not in the hidden part.

The numbers are added as real text on top of the page, in one of the standard PDF fonts, so they print sharply at any size and can be found with search. Nothing underneath is changed or re-rendered: text stays selectable, images keep their quality and forms and links keep working.

Worked examples

A client report with a cover

A 12-page SEO audit has a designed cover. Choose bottom right, Page 1 of N, start at 1, 10 pt, 12 mm, tick Skip the first page. The summary reads "Page 2 gets Page 1 of 11, page 12 gets Page 11 of 11." The cover stays clean and the client can refer to "page 4 of 11" on a call.

A wholesale catalog built from several files

You combined a cover, a price list and four product sections into a 48-page catalog with Merge PDF. Each section had its own numbering, or none. Choose bottom right, format 1, 9 pt, 10 mm, skip the cover, start at 1, and every page from 2 to 48 gets a continuous number from 1 to 47. If some sections already had numbers at the bottom, choose top right to avoid a clash. Keeping product data straight across catalogs and a store is a job of its own: AM Jarvis Product Importer copies products with all variants, images and prices into Shopify or WooCommerce, which saves rebuilding them from a PDF by hand.

A legal bundle

Exhibits for a dispute must be numbered continuously from 1 so everyone can cite "page 87". Merge the exhibits in order, then choose bottom center, Page 1 of N, 10 pt, 10 mm and Courier for a typewritten look. The tool does not add prefixes such as case codes (Bates numbering), so if your court or firm requires those, use dedicated legal software.

Fonts and color

The three fonts are the standard PDF fonts that every viewer understands, so nothing extra is embedded and the file barely grows. Helvetica is a clean sans-serif that suits reports, catalogs and slides. Times matches the classic serif look of books, contracts and academic papers. Courier is a fixed-width typewriter face often used for legal bundles and technical documents, where every digit takes the same space so numbers line up neatly in a corner.

The default color is a dark gray (#222222), which reads as black on paper but looks a touch softer on screen. Use pure black for faxes and low-quality printers, or match a brand color for a designed catalog. Very light colors are hard to read on scans and on pages with gray backgrounds; the preview shows you before you commit.

How the live preview works

Every time you change an option, the tool copies the page you are looking at into a small temporary PDF, stamps the number on it with the same code that writes the final file, and draws that page with pdf.js. That means the preview shows the real position, size and font metrics, not an approximation drawn over a picture. Use the arrows to check a landscape page, a rotated scan or the last page, where the longest number such as "Page 148 of 148" is widest and most likely to bump into a footer.

Other ways to number PDF pages

• In the source document: if you still have the Word, Google Docs or InDesign file, adding page numbers there before exporting gives the most control over fonts and layout.
• Adobe Acrobat: the paid Acrobat apps add numbers through the Header and Footer feature, with prefixes and Bates numbering. The free Acrobat Reader cannot add page numbers.
• Mac Preview: Preview has no page numbering feature. You can add a text box per page with the markup tools, which is slow and leaves editable annotations rather than page content.

For a finished PDF you cannot or do not want to re-export, stamping numbers onto it, as this tool does, is the quickest route.

Common mistakes

• Numbering before the file is final. If you add or delete pages afterward, the printed numbers no longer match. Finish merging, deleting and reordering first, with Organize PDF and Delete PDF Pages, then number.
• Numbering twice. Running the tool on an already numbered file adds a second set. Go back to the unnumbered original.
• Light gray on scans. A pale color can disappear on a gray scanned page. Keep the default dark gray or use black.
• Too small for print. Below 8 pt, numbers get hard to read on paper. 9 to 11 pt is a safe range.

Troubleshooting

• The PDF will not open. If it is password protected or has editing restrictions, remove the password first with Unlock PDF (you need the password), then number the unlocked copy.
• The number overlaps text. Increase the distance from the edge, lower the font size or move it to a corner. Check pages with different layouts using the preview arrows.
• The preview font looks slightly different. Your browser may stand in a similar system font for the preview. The saved PDF uses the real standard font, which PDF viewers display correctly.
• Skipping the first page is not allowed. The PDF has only one page, so there would be nothing left to number.

Privacy and limits

The tool is free with no daily limit, no account and no watermark. Your PDF is numbered in your browser and never uploaded. The numbers use standard PDF fonts, which cover English and Western European letters; the "Page" word is fixed in English. Very large PDFs depend on your device's memory, but numbering is light work, so even long documents finish quickly.