PDF Page Numbers & Bates Numbering

How to Add Page Numbers to a PDF

1
Open your PDF
Drop a PDF onto the page or browse for one. It is read on your device and never uploaded.
2
Choose the numbering
Pick a preset, or set the numeral system, the format, where the number sits and how far it is from the edge.
3
Check the preview
Every page is shown with its number exactly where it will be printed, so you can confirm placement before you commit.
4
Download the numbered PDF
Press the action and save the new file. The original is untouched.

Why Add Page Numbers?

A document without page numbers cannot be cited, cross-referenced or discussed. The moment two people have to talk about the same contract, the same bundle of exhibits or the same forty-page report, the folio in the corner is what turns a stack of paper into something with addresses in it. Numbering is also what makes a document auditable: a reader can see at a glance whether a page is missing, and a court or a client can quote a specific line without ambiguity.

What Numbering Gives You

Navigation: readers can find a section by its number instead of counting sheets.
Citation: a reviewer can point at page 47 and everyone is looking at the same thing.
Completeness: a gap in the sequence shows immediately that a page is missing.
Legal tracking: Bates codes give every page in a production a unique, sortable identifier.
Consistency: one placement and one format across a whole document, applied in a single pass.

Numeral Systems and Formats

Two independent choices decide what appears on the page. The numeral system decides how a value is written; the format decides what it is wrapped in. Keeping them apart is what makes combinations like Page iv of xii possible, and it is the axis on which this tool is ahead of the online alternatives, none of which offer roman numerals or letters at all.

The Five Numeral Systems

Arabic: 1, 2, 3 — the default, and the only system that accepts zero padding, so 000001 is available for Bates work.
Lowercase roman: i, ii, iii — the convention for preface, foreword and table of contents.
Uppercase roman: I, II, III — used for volume parts and for formal front matter.
Lowercase letters: a, b, c and on past z to aa, ab — the spreadsheet-column sequence, useful for lettered exhibits.
Uppercase letters: A, B, C — the usual labelling for appendices.

The Six Formats

Number only: the value on its own, with any prefix and suffix you have set.
Page N: the word Page in front, translated with the rest of the interface.
N of M: the value and the last value in the sequence.
Page N of M: both, the format most reports use.
N/M: the compact form that fits a narrow margin.
Custom template: your own string with {n}, {page}, {total} and {pages} filled in.

The total in the of M formats is the last value in the sequence, not the number of sheets in the file. On a ten-page document numbered from the first page that is ten, exactly as expected. Skip the cover and the same document reads Page 1 of 9 — which is what the person holding the numbered copy will actually count.

Where the Number Goes

A folio is only useful where a reader's thumb expects it. Six positions cover every convention in ordinary use, and the margin decides how far from the paper edge the text sits — measured to the near edge of the text, so a small margin and a large font behave the way you would draw them by hand.

Position and Margin

Bottom centre: the default for reports, manuals and anything bound at the top.
Bottom right: the convention for legal bundles and Bates codes.
Top right: common in academic submissions and in documents read on screen.
Left, centre and right, top and bottom: all six combinations are available.
Small, medium and large margins: 24, 36 and 54 points from the paper edge.
Mirror on facing pages: left and right swap on alternate sheets, so the number always lands on the outer edge of a bound document. It is unavailable when the position is centred, because there it would change nothing.
Ink strength and a panel: fade the number back on a busy page, or put a solid panel behind it so a Bates code survives a shaded or photocopied margin.

Rotated and Mixed-Size Pages

A PDF page has a stored size and a separate instruction telling the viewer to turn it. A page can therefore be stored upright and displayed sideways, which is what happens to every scan somebody has straightened. The number is placed in the space the reader sees, not the space the file stores, so a sideways page gets its folio along the visible bottom edge and the right way up. Mixed page sizes in one document are handled the same way: each page's own visible box decides where its number lands.

Page Numbering Explained

Numbering happens in two steps that are worth keeping separate in your head. First the tool decides which pages are in scope and what value each of them gets. Then, for each of those pages, it works out where the text belongs on that particular sheet and writes it into the document as real text — not as a picture of text.

Scope, Start Value and Cover Pages

All pages: every sheet in the document, in order.
Page range: a list such as 1-5, 8, 10-12. Anything you type that is not a page in this document is quoted back to you rather than silently ignored.
Odd or even pages: one side of a duplex document, useful when the two sides carry different numbering.
Skip cover page: leaves the first sheet clean while the sequence carries on behind it.
Start at: the value printed on the first numbered page, so a chapter that follows a numbered preface can continue rather than restart.

Best Practices

Numbering is a decision you make once for a whole document and then live with in every citation of it. A few habits make that decision cheap to get right and expensive to get wrong.

Placement and Readability

Decide the convention before distribution: a renumbered document invalidates every citation of the old one.
Keep the number clear of existing footer text by putting the two in different corners, or let the header and footer fields place them for you.
Use a small font on dense or scanned pages, where an eleven-point number can collide with the scan's own margin.
Use zero padding whenever the sequence will pass a hundred, so the codes sort correctly as filenames and in a spreadsheet.
Bottom right is the safest choice for a legal bundle: it is the corner a reader's thumb uncovers first.
Number a single test page before committing a large production, and check the preview rather than the file size.

Common Use Cases

Legal bundles: Bates-number exhibits with a prefix, six digits of padding and a bottom-right position.
Reports and manuals: Page N of M at the bottom centre, with the cover skipped.
Books and dissertations: lowercase roman for the front matter, arabic starting at 1 for the body.
Appendices: uppercase letters, so A-1 and B-1 read as sections rather than as pages.
Bound documents: mirrored placement so every number sits on the outer edge.
Invoices and statements: a compact N/M in a small margin, where the space is tight.

How Page Numbering Works

The document is opened on your device, its pages are read for their visible size and their rotation, the sequence is built from your settings, and each label is written into the page's own content as selectable, searchable text. Nothing is rasterised, nothing is recompressed, and every other object in the file — images, bookmarks, form fields, attachments — is carried through untouched.

The Numbering Process

Read: page count, each page's visible box and each page's rotation, with nothing decoded.
Plan: which pages are in scope, what value each one gets, and what string that value becomes.
Fit: the largest font size at which the longest label still fits between the margins of the narrowest page in scope.
Place: for each page, the exact point on the sheet the reader will see, allowing for that page's own rotation.
Write: the label as real text, in a font that is either built into the PDF format or served from this site.
Save: a new document, with the original left exactly as it was.

Fonts and Non-Latin Text

Helvetica, Times and Courier are built into the PDF format itself, so choosing one adds no bytes to your file at all. They can set the Latin alphabet and the accented characters that go with it. If your prefix, suffix or template needs Cyrillic or Greek, a font covering those is embedded from this site instead, subset to only the characters you actually used. No font is ever fetched from anywhere else. Scripts that font does not cover — Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hebrew among them — are named back to you rather than being written as empty boxes, which is the failure that looks like success.

Numbering a hundred-page document takes about a second and never blocks the page while it runs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What page numbering formats are available?

Choose a numeral system — arabic (1, 2, 3), lowercase roman (i, ii, iii), uppercase roman (I, II, III), lowercase letters (a, b, c) or uppercase letters (A, B, C) — and combine it with a format: the number on its own, Page 4, 4 of 12, Page 4 of 12, 4/12, or a template you write yourself. The two choices are independent, so Page iv of xii is one click away from Page 4 of 12.

What is Bates numbering?

Bates numbering adds a sequential identifier — a prefix plus a zero-padded number — to every page, and it is what legal discovery, court filings and document management run on. Set the prefix (for example EXHIBIT-), the starting value and the amount of zero padding; the Legal Bates preset fills all three in for you and puts the code in the bottom-right corner.

Can I add page numbers only to specific pages?

Yes. Number all pages, a range you type such as 1-5, 8, 10-12, only the odd pages, or only the even pages. Skip cover page is a separate switch, so numbering can begin on page 2 while the sequence still starts at 1 — or at any value you choose.

Can I use roman numerals for front matter?

Yes, and this is the thing most online numbering tools cannot do. Pick lowercase roman and the Front matter preset to number a preface i, ii, iii, then run the tool a second time over the body pages with arabic numerals starting at 1. Roman numerals are defined up to 3999, so the starting value is bounded there while a roman system is selected.

Where on the page can the number go?

Any of six positions — top or bottom, left, centre or right — with a small, medium or large margin from the paper edge. Mirror on facing pages swaps left and right on alternate sheets, which is what a bound document needs so the number always falls on the outer edge.

Can I add a header or footer with custom text?

Yes. A header line and a footer line can carry any text you like, each with its own alignment. If a line shares a band with the page number the two are kept apart automatically, and a line that is too long for the space left beside the number is set smaller until it fits.

Can I control the font, size and colour?

Yes. Helvetica, Times or Courier, in regular, bold, italic or bold italic, at a size you set, in any colour. The size slider stops at the largest value that still fits between the margins of the narrowest page in your document, so it can never offer you a number that would run off the paper.

What happens to pages that are rotated?

The number goes where the reader sees it. A page stored upright but displayed sideways still gets its folio along the visible bottom edge, the right way up — which is what happens to every scan that has been straightened, and what most numbering tools get wrong.

Is my PDF data secure?

Yes. The document is opened, numbered and saved on your device. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and the fonts used for the numbering are served from this site rather than fetched from anyone else.

Can I fade the number or put a panel behind it?

Yes. Ink strength dims the number from full down to a tenth, which is what you want on a page that is already busy. A panel behind it does the opposite: a solid block of any colour under the text, so a Bates code stays readable on a shaded, coloured or photocopied margin. The Legal Bates preset switches the panel on for exactly that reason.