Add page numbers to a PDF

A numbered document is easier to follow, easier to check and easier to put back together after it has been printed and dropped. This adds numbers to the pages of a PDF you already have, in the corner and the format you choose.

How it works

1. Add your PDFDrop the document. The first page is drawn straight away so you can see what you are working on and where a number will land.
2. Set the numbersOpen Page numbers, tick it, then choose where they go, what they look like and which number to start from. The preview updates as you change each one.
3. ProcessThe numbers are written onto every page and offered as a new download. The document you dropped is only ever read.

What this adds — and what it leaves alone

The numbers are drawn onto the pages as real text, above whatever is already there. They can be selected, searched and copied like any other words in the file, and a screen reader can read them. Nothing underneath is deleted or rewritten, so your original content keeps its fonts, its images and its quality.

That also means one honest limitation: if the document already has its own footer numbers, you will end up with two numbers on the page. This tool cannot see that the page already carries a number, and it does not try to guess. If the document is numbered, it usually wants no second set.

Choosing a format that will not embarrass you

Plain numbers are the safest: a bare digit in the bottom centre reads as a page number to everybody. The "n of total" form is more informative and more fragile — it forces the reader to notice how long the document is, which is not always what you want. If the file is still being drafted and pages may be added, plain numbers save you from a wrong total.

The starting number matters more than people expect. A cover sheet counted as page one means the first real page is page two; if that is not what you want, set the start to 0 and number from the cover, or accept a cover with no number on it by leaving the number where the cover does not show it. Colour and size are worth setting to something close to the document's own text rather than the defaults, because a page number that shouts is the first thing a reader notices.

Where page numbers are usually wanted

Court and government submissions, contracts and reports where a page is referred to by number. Printed handouts and training material, where a dropped sheet is otherwise impossible to put back in the right place. Long scans assembled from several files, where the numbers prove the order and show that nothing is missing.

It is also the quickest way to check a document that has already been assembled by hand: numbering it makes a duplicated or missing page visible at a glance, which is exactly the moment people discover they needed numbers all along.

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