How to add page numbers to a PDF
A report, thesis or printed handout without page numbers is a small daily annoyance, readers lose their place, and "see page 12" means nothing. Word processors handle this automatically, but once a document is already a PDF, most people assume they'd need to redo it from source. You don't.
Step by step
- Open Add Page Numbers and add your file.
- Pick a position, any corner or centred top/bottom.
- Set the format using
{n}for the page number and{total}for the page count, e.g. "Page {n} of {total}" or just "{n}". - Choose where numbering starts and how many digits to pad to.
- Click "Add Page Numbers" to download the numbered PDF.
A few practical tips
- Add a prefix or suffix around the tokens for document IDs. A format like "DOC-{n}" with digits padded to 6 produces "DOC-000001", "DOC-000002", the classic Bates-numbering scheme used for legal document sets.
- Starting number doesn't have to be 1. Useful when a document is one part of a larger bound set and needs to continue the previous section's numbering.
- Keep font size proportional to the page. 9–11pt reads clearly without competing with the page content, larger works better for oversized or presentation-style pages.
- Marking a document as a draft too? Watermark PDF can stamp "DRAFT" diagonally across every page in the same pass.
Ready to number your pages?
Open Add Page Numbers