Add page numbers to a PDF
Add page numbers to a PDF, choosing where to place them, the format and which number to start from. Everything happens in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
One PDF file
Why number your pages
Page numbers make a document more professional and easier to navigate: handy for handouts, theses, contracts, reports and any PDF that will be printed or cited. You can pick the format that fits best, for example «1 / 12» to also show the total, or start from a number other than 1 if the document continues from another one.
Tip
For documents to be bound, placing the number at the bottom center is the safest choice, as it stays away from the binding margin.
Why they matter even on a digital file
Page numbers look like a paper thing, but they matter most when a document is quoted or discussed: «look at page 14» only works if the page says 14. In contracts, reports and legal filings they are the condition for two people to be talking about the same line.
The commonest case is the document born from merging several files: each piece had its own numbering and together they have no coherent one. Renumbering everything at the end is the only way to get a document that can be cited.
The page number and where it goes
Numbering can start from a page other than the first, and nearly always should: covers and contents pages are usually left unnumbered, or numbered separately. So the printed number and the position in the file do not match, and that is normal.
The classic position is bottom centre or bottom right. Right is the correct choice if the document will be bound or stapled, because the number stays away from the binding margin; centre if it will only be read on screen. At the top, numbers often collide with headers.
Mind the margins
The real risk is writing the number over the content: many documents have tight margins and a footer that is already occupied. It is worth looking at any page in the middle of the document, not the first, which is often the emptiest.
The other delicate point is pages of a different size or orientation: in a document with landscape tables a number placed «at the bottom» ends up on the side. And if the document is meant to be printed double-sided, centred numbering is the only one that does not jump from page to page.
Nearby tools
Before numbering it pays to put the pages in order with Organise PDF or to join the pieces with Merge PDF. To add a caption on every page there is Watermark on PDF.