Number the pages of a PDF

Page numbers, without depending on any particular program

Adding page numbers to a PDF usually means opening a full PDF editor, or printing the document and numbering it by hand. This tool draws the number directly onto each page of the file, with the position, format, and style you choose — nothing to install, right in your browser.

The six available positions

Page numbering conventionally sits near one edge — footer or header — aligned left, center, or right. Those six combinations are the positions offered here, the same ones used by the vast majority of formal documents, course handouts, and reports. There's no diagonal or rotated side position, like the one available on this portal's watermark tool — page numbering doesn't use that kind of placement in practice, unlike a watermark, which sometimes needs to take up more visual space on purpose.

Four formats, each suited to a different context

Plain number ("3") is the most common, and enough for most documents. Number with total ("3/40") helps the reader know how much is left. "Page 3 of 40," spelled out, is more formal, common in contracts and official documents. Lowercase roman ("iii") is the traditional convention for numbering the front-matter sections of an academic paper — abstract, table of contents, list of figures — kept separate from the arabic numbering of the body text, which restarts at 1 after the introduction.

Skipping the cover page without skipping the count

"Start numbering on page" solves a common case: the cover page (or title page) shouldn't show a visible number, but the rest of the document should keep counting normally from there. Pages before the one you choose get no number at all; from that page on, numbering appears starting at the configured starting number — which can also be something other than 1, to continue a numbering sequence carried over from another document, for example.

The preview shows exactly what will end up in the file

The preview image isn't an approximate simulation — it's generated by applying real numbering to the corresponding page of the uploaded PDF, using the same function used to generate the final file, then rendered as an image. What you see on screen is literally what will end up in the numbered PDF, including when the numbered page isn't the first one in the document (because of the skip-the-cover option).

Watch out for duplicate numbering

If the original PDF already has a page number printed as part of its content (not real numbering recognized by a PDF reader, just text drawn onto the page since the file was created), the new number this tool draws shows up next to or on top of it — the two don't cancel each other out or replace one another automatically. The preview is the moment to catch this before generating the whole file, especially if the position you chose lines up with where the old number already sits.

Processing several files with the same settings

A batch of PDFs can be numbered all at once, all with the same position, format, font, color, and margin — but each file uses its own real page count to calculate the total shown in the formats that need it ("X/Y" or "Page X of Y"), never a fixed value shared across different files in the batch.

Font, size, color, and margin

The font used for the number doesn't need to (and usually shouldn't) draw as much attention as the body of the document — a smaller size, in one of the three standard fonts available, keeps the number discreet and legible without competing with the page's content. The margin controls the distance between the number and the edge of the page: a small margin brings the number closer to the physical edge of the paper (risking it getting cut off when printed, if too small); a larger margin leaves more breathing room. The default color is black, but any color can be chosen — a lighter gray, for example, discreet enough not to compete for attention with the page's main text.

What this tool doesn't do

It doesn't remove or replace a page number that's already printed as part of the original content — it only adds a new one on top. It doesn't number different sections of the document differently (for example, roman up to a certain page and arabic afterward) in a single pass — each run uses one format only, from the start to the end of the numbered range. And it doesn't work with a password-protected PDF, which needs to have that protection removed first.