Add Page Numbers
Insert page numbers with custom position, format and styling.
How to use Add Page Numbers
- Add the PDF you want to number.
- Pick a position on the nine-point grid — bottom centre is the usual choice.
- Choose a format: a plain number, "Page 1", or "1 / 10".
- Set the first number and the page range if the numbering should not start at page one.
- Adjust font size, margin and colour, then press Add page numbers to download.
How Add Page Numbers works
Page numbers sound simple until you have a document with a cover sheet. This tool separates the two things people usually conflate: which pages get stamped, and what number appears on them.
The From and To fields control which pages are stamped. The First number field controls what the first stamped page says. Set From to 3 and First number to 1, and your cover and contents pages stay clean while the body starts at 1 — the conventional layout for a report.
Position comes from a nine-point grid, with a margin slider controlling how far the number sits from the page edge. Font size and colour are yours to set, and a live preview line shows exactly what the first stamped page will read. Three formats are available: a bare number, "Page N", or "N / total".
The number is drawn onto the existing page as text using the standard Helvetica font, which every PDF reader already has, so nothing is embedded and the file grows by only a few hundred bytes. Your page content is untouched underneath.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. This tool runs entirely inside your browser — the file is read from disk by the page and never transmitted. It keeps working even if you disconnect after the page has loaded.
How do I skip the cover page but still start numbering at 1?
Set From page to 2 and First number to 1. The cover is left alone, and the page after it is stamped with the number 1. The two settings are independent on purpose — one chooses which pages get a stamp, the other chooses what the counting starts from.
What does the "1 / 10" format count?
The total reflects the range you are numbering, not the document length. If you stamp pages 3 to 12 starting from 1, the last page reads 10 / 10. That keeps the numbering internally consistent when front matter is excluded.
Can the number overlap my existing content?
Yes — it is drawn on top of the page, so if your document already has a footer in that spot they will collide. Move the position to another corner or raise the margin. Nothing underneath is erased, so a bad placement is fixed by starting again from the original.
Does it work with non-Latin scripts?
The numbers themselves are fine in every language, since digits are Latin characters. The "Page" prefix is fixed English text. The standard font used cannot render Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic or similar scripts, so choose the plain number format if that matters.
Can I remove the numbers afterwards?
Not with this tool — once drawn, they are part of the page content. Keep your original file; the stamped version is downloaded as a separate document with "-numbered" in its name, so the unstamped original is never overwritten.