Add page numbers
to a PDF.

Putting numbers on pages that don't have them

The reasons are usually about being able to refer to something. A 60-page contract that says "see page 12" is useless if there are no page numbers — readers have to count from the cover. A thesis without pagination won't pass the formatting check. A scanned report shipped without page numbers makes table-of-contents references impossible. A long brief sent to a court has to be paginated for the court's own filing rules. A merged document — say, three short PDFs joined into one — needs new pagination because each part started fresh at 1. The job here is small and predictable: take a PDF without page numbers (or with the wrong ones) and write fresh numbers on every page.

The numbers are drawn on top of the existing page content, the way you'd stamp them with ink. The pages themselves don't change — your text, images, and layout stay exactly as they were. There's just a small label added in the corner or along the bottom edge of each page.

Where the number sits, and what it says

Six positions are available — bottom or top, left/center/right. Bottom-center is the default and the most common choice for body text; top-right is the convention for academic papers. The position you pick applies uniformly to every numbered page.

Three formats:

• Simple: just the number — 1, 2, 3… Clean, takes the least space.
• Page X: Page 1, Page 2… Clearer when readers might be skimming and the number alone could be missed.
• Page X of N: Page 1 of 20, Page 2 of 20… Useful when readers need to know how much is left, or when the document might be printed and a missing page should be obvious.

The format text — "Page", "of" — is rendered in English regardless of your document's language. That's a deliberate choice: PDF page numbering is a structural label, not body text, and English here works as a universal stamp the same way ISO date format does. The number itself is what matters; readers in any language understand what "Page 5 of 20" means at a glance.

Skipping the cover and starting from a different number

Two settings cover the unusual cases:

• Skip the first N pages. If your document starts with a cover and a table of contents, you usually don't want them numbered. Set "skip" to 2 and the first numbered page is page 3 of the file — it gets number 1 (or whatever you set as the starting number).
• Start at a different number. If this PDF is volume 2 of a multi-part document, and volume 1 ended at page 99, you want this volume's numbering to start at 100. Set "start at" to 100 and the first numbered page gets that.

Combine both for the standard academic case: skip 1 (the cover), start at 1 (the introduction is page 1). For a thesis with cover + abstract + table of contents, skip 3, start at 1.

What gets drawn vs. what was already there

This tool only adds — it doesn't remove. If your PDF already has page numbers in the footer, this tool's numbers will sit on top of them, possibly overlapping. Two checks before running:

• Open the document in a viewer and look at the corners. If you see existing numbers, decide whether to leave them and pick a non-conflicting position (e.g. existing in bottom-center → put new ones top-right), or scrap and re-export from the source.
• Check headers and footers across pages. Sometimes the first few pages have a different layout (no footer) than the rest. Pick a position that works for the page that has the most going on.

The font is Helvetica, size 11pt by default, in dark grey — readable but not domineering. Increase the size if your pages are large (legal/A3) or decrease it if you need it tucked away.

What survives and what doesn't

• Original page content stays exactly as it was. Text, images, layout — untouched.
• Bookmarks, annotations, form fields all survive. The tool draws on top of the page rather than rebuilding it.
• The numbers don't update if you later reorder or delete pages. They're baked into the page content, not live counters. If you're going to reorganize or delete pages, do that first, then number.
• Digital signatures are invalidated. Any modification breaks the signature binding.

If something looks off

• Numbers overlap with existing content. The chosen position has something there already. Try a different corner, or shrink the font size.
• The first numbered page is wrong. Check the "skip" value — counting from 0, the cover sheet is index 0, so to skip just the cover you want skip=1, not 2.
• The PDF is encrypted. Run it through unlock-pdf first; encrypted PDFs can't be modified.

Practical notes

1. For documents that will be printed, bottom-center reads naturally on both single-sided and duplex layouts. Bottom-outside (left on even pages, right on odd) isn't supported here — the position is uniform.
2. For digital-only documents, bottom-right or top-right keeps the centre of the page clean and is easy to see when scrolling.
3. If you're combining several documents into one, merge first with merge-pdf, then number — the numbering will be consistent across the whole merged file.
4. The original file stays untouched. What you download is a new PDF with the numbers added; the source on your disk is unchanged.

What happens to your file

Numbering runs in your browser. Open DevTools and watch the Network tab during the operation — there are no outbound requests carrying the file content. The PDF stays on your disk; the numbered version is a new download alongside it.