Free Online Add Page Numbers to PDF, Position, Start Number & Style
Print page numbers into a PDF exactly where you want them. Choose any of nine positions, set the starting number, skip the cover, pick the font size and margin, and use formats like 1, Page 1 or 1 of 20. A live preview shows the placement before you download the numbered file.
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Add Page Numbers to a PDF
Drag and drop your PDF here to number its pages.
It is opened by your browser, not by a server.
Select a PDF File
Up to 100 MB •
2,000 pages •
nothing is uploaded
document.pdf
Start from a common case
What should it say?
The quietest option, and the one most printed books use.
Roman numerals are how a preface is usually numbered, with the body starting again at 1.
Where should it go?
Bottom center is what most printed documents use.
Which pages get a number?
Set this to 2 to leave a cover page clean.
Leave empty to number to the end.
Put 1 here to ignore the cover entirely.
Plain and modern. Matches most on-screen documents.
Measured from the edge of the paper.
Colour
Preview
The preview draws the real page with the number where it will actually land, including on
pages that are stored sideways.
Output
.pdf
Done
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Skipping the Cover Page, and Where to Start Counting
Two separate questions that most tools squash into one.
They really are separate. One is which page gets the first printed number. The other is what
that number should be. A title page usually gets no number at all, but whether the page after it is
called 1 or 2 depends on whether the title page counts. Setting both is how you get either answer.
What you want
What to set
What you get
Number every page, nothing fancy
Format "Just the number", start page 1, first number 1
1, 2, 3 ... to the end
Nothing on the title page
Start numbering at page 2, first number 2
Page 1 clean, then 2, 3, 4 ...
Title page ignored completely
Start numbering at page 2, first number 1
Page 1 clean, then 1, 2, 3 ...
Roman numerals for the front matter
Style "i, ii, iii", pages 1 to 6
i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi and nothing after
A count so nobody loses a sheet
Format "Page 7 of 24"
Page 1 of 24, Page 2 of 24 ...
Numbers only on the appendix
Pages 31 to 44, first number 1
Pages 1 to 30 clean, then 1 to 14
Two sided printing, like a book
Position "Bottom outside"
Right on odd pages, left on even ones
For a book, run the tool twice. Once over the front matter with roman numerals, then once more over
the body with the first number set back to 1. Each pass only touches the range you gave it.
Why Page Numbers Land Sideways on Scanned Files
And what this page does differently.
A landscape page in a PDF is very often not landscape at all. It is an upright page carrying a note
that says it should be turned a quarter circle before it is shown. Scanners set that note constantly,
and so does anything that rotates a page properly. The content underneath never moves.
That matters here because a page number is placed by coordinates. Ask for the bottom right corner and
a tool that ignores the note will measure the bottom right of the untouched, upright page. Once the
viewer applies the turn, that spot has travelled to a different edge, and the number is lying on its
side as well.
On a page stored at 90 degrees
A tool that ignores rotation
This page
Corner the number appears in
Not the one you picked
The one you picked
Which way the number reads
Sideways
Straight
Distance from the paper edge
Measured on the wrong side
The margin you set
Mixed upright and sideways pages
Numbers wander about
All in the same place
You can see it before you save. Press Show preview and the page is drawn exactly as a
reader will see it, with the number in the spot it will actually occupy. If a page in your file is
stored sideways, that is where you will notice it.
Is It Safe to Number a PDF Online?
A fair question, and the answer is checkable.
What happens to your file
Most PDF sites
This page
Where the file is opened
On their server
In your browser
Who else can read it
Whoever runs the server
Nobody, it never left
What happens afterwards
Deleted later, they say
There is nothing to delete
Can you verify the claim
No, you have to trust it
Yes, see below
Check it yourself. Press F12 to open your browser tools and go to the Network tab. Drop a PDF
in and number it. You will see the page fetch its own code and nothing else: your file is never sent.
For a stronger test, load this page, turn off your wifi, and number a document anyway. It still works,
which would be impossible if a server were doing the job.
How to Add Page Numbers to a PDF
Drop, choose, download. Your original is never touched.
1
Open your PDFDrag it onto the box, or press the button and pick it. The file is read by your browser and never leaves the computer.
2
Choose how the number should lookPick a format such as 7 or Page 7 of 24, then a corner. The preview updates as you change things, so you can see it before you commit.
3
Say where numbering startsLeave a cover page clean by starting at page 2, and set the first number to 1 or 2 depending on whether the cover counts.
4
Add the numbers and savePress the button and download the result. Everything already in the file is left as it was.
What to Know Before You Number
Including the things this tool cannot do.
Numbers already printed on the page stay. If the document was numbered before, this adds a second set beside the first. There is no way to erase text that is already drawn into a page without redrawing the whole page, which would cost you the text layer. Put the new number somewhere the old one is not, or number a document that has none.
Do this last, after the pages are settled. The number is drawn onto the page, so it belongs to that sheet from then on. Delete, reorder or split afterwards and the numbers go out of step. Get the pages into their final order first, then number them.
Latin letters and digits only. The four fonts used here are the ones every PDF reader already has, which is why nothing is embedded and the file barely grows. They only cover Latin script, so a label in Urdu, Arabic, Chinese or Cyrillic cannot be drawn.
It cannot know where your text ends. The margin is measured from the edge of the page, not from the last line of your writing. On a page whose text runs very low the number can land close to it. Raise the margin, or move the number to the top.
Encrypted files have to be opened first. A PDF that asks for a password before it will open cannot be read here. Remove the password first, then come back.
What this tool does, and what it deliberately does not.
Right way up on rotated pagesA sideways page has a turn recorded inside it, and most tools ignore it, so the number lands on its side in the wrong corner. Here the corner you picked is the corner you see, and the number reads straight, whichever way the page is turned.
See it before you save itThe preview draws the real page with the real number on it, in the real spot. Change the size, corner or colour and it redraws, so nothing is a guess.
Roman numerals and lettersFront matter in i, ii, iii and the body in 1, 2, 3 is how books have always been laid out. Run the tool twice, once for each range, and you get exactly that.
An outside corner that swaps sidesPrint on both sides and the outer edge changes side with every sheet. One position handles it, right on odd pages and left on even.
Your text stays textNothing is turned into a picture. Pages are untouched apart from the number drawn on top, so the writing is still selectable and searchable and the quality is exactly what it was.
The file never leaves your computerThere is no upload and no server. The work happens in the page you are reading, which is why it also works with the network switched off.
About the Add Page Numbers Tool
A page number is one of those things nobody notices until it is missing. Hand somebody twenty loose sheets with nothing on them and the first thing that happens is a sheet goes out of order and nobody can tell. Word processors put numbers in for you, but the moment a document becomes a PDF, and especially once it has been merged, split or scanned, those numbers are either gone or belong to a document that no longer exists.
This tool draws fresh numbers onto the pages of a PDF, in your browser, without the file going anywhere. You choose what the number says, which corner it sits in, and which stretch of the document gets one. The rest of the file is left alone: the text stays selectable, images keep their quality, and the size barely moves because the fonts used are ones every PDF reader already has.
The part worth knowing about is rotation. A sideways page in a PDF is usually not sideways content at all. It is ordinary upright content with a note attached saying it should be turned a quarter circle when shown. Tools that stamp a number without reading that note put it on its side, in a corner that looks correct in the file and wrong on the screen. This one reads the note, works out where your chosen corner actually ends up, and turns the number to match.
The honest limit is that existing numbers cannot be removed. Text drawn into a page is not a label that can be peeled off, and the only way to get rid of it is to redraw the page as an image, which costs you the text layer and softens everything on it. If your document already carries numbers, put the new ones in a different corner. And number last: once a number is on a page it stays with that sheet, so any deleting, reordering or splitting done afterwards will leave the sequence wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything worth knowing before you number a document.
Open the file on this page, pick a format and a corner, and press the button. Nothing is uploaded, there is no sign up and no watermark is added. The whole thing runs inside your browser, so the document stays on your own computer.
Yes. Set numbering to start at page 2. Then decide what the first printed number should be: 2 if the cover counts as page one, or 1 if you want the cover ignored and the page after it treated as the beginning.
No, and no tool can do that safely. Those numbers are drawn into the page the same way the rest of the text is. Removing them would mean redrawing the page as a picture, which loses the text layer and softens everything. Put the new number in a different corner, or start from a document with none.
It comes out straight and in the corner you asked for. A rotated page carries its turn as a note inside the file rather than as actually turned content, so a tool that ignores that note puts the number on its side and in the wrong place. This one reads the turn and works around it.
Yes. Give a first page and a last page, and only that stretch is touched. It is how you number an appendix on its own, or put roman numerals on the first six pages and nothing else.
Barely. The fonts used are the ones every PDF reader already carries, so nothing is embedded. A few hundred bytes per page is normal, whatever the size of the original.
Not here. Those built in fonts only cover Latin letters and digits. Anything outside that script would need a font embedded in the file, and this tool does not embed one.
That is expected, and it is why numbering should come last. Once a number is drawn onto a page it belongs to that sheet, and it will not notice pages being removed, added or moved after that. Sort the pages out first, then number the result.
No. The numbers are drawn onto the pages in this tab and a new PDF written here. Open the tool, disconnect, and it still numbers your pages.
It clears a small area so the number does not sit on top of a line, a border or a scanned background. On a plain white page you will never notice it. If your page has a coloured background it will show as a pale rectangle, and you can switch it off.
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