How to Add Page Numbers to a PDF (and Leave the Cover Page Blank)

Try discussing a 60-page document over the phone without page numbers. “It's somewhere in the middle, after the table.” Numbers are one of those small details that nobody notices when they're there and everybody misses when they're not. Theses, contracts, reports and merged document packs all read better with them, and adding them takes about a minute.

How to add them

1. Open PDF Page Numbering and drop in your file.
2. Choose where the numbers go: top or bottom, and left, center or right. That's six positions in total.
3. Set the number the first page should start from. Any whole number from 0 up works.
4. Press Add Page Numbers, then use the Download button to save the new file.

Which position should you pick?

Bottom center is the safe default for most documents, and it's what you'll see in reports and letters. If you plan to print double-sided and bind the pages, outer corners are the traditional choice: bottom right works well for right-hand pages. And if your PDF already has footer text, such as a company name or a confidentiality line, try the top of the page instead so the number doesn't collide with it.

Starting from a number other than 1

This is handy when a document continues from an earlier section. If chapter one runs to page 24, you can number chapter two from 25 and combine them later without a numbering clash. It's also what makes the cover page trick below possible.

How to skip the cover page

The tool numbers every page, so there's no option to leave the first one blank. There's an easy workaround, though, using tools you already have:

1. Use Extract PDF Pages to pull out every page except the cover and save the result as a new file. Then extract the cover on its own the same way.
2. Run the file without the cover through the numbering tool and set the start number to 2, so its first page is labeled 2.
3. Merge the untouched cover in front of the numbered file.

It's a few extra steps, but the result looks like a document that was numbered properly in a word processor.

Do it in the right order

• Merge first, number second. If you number each file and then merge them, every part restarts at 1. Combine everything with Merge PDF and number the finished document once.
• Fix rotation before numbering. A number stamped on a sideways page ends up sideways. Use Rotate PDF first.
• Remove unwanted pages beforehand with Delete PDF Pages, otherwise your numbering will have gaps or confusing jumps.
• Always start from the un-numbered original. Number a file twice by mistake and every page ends up with two numbers stacked on top of each other.
• Check the file size afterward. Numbering adds almost nothing, but if a merged document is still large, Compress PDF can sometimes shrink it.

Will it print properly?

The number sits about 28 points from the edge of the page, which is roughly one centimeter. That's inside the area most office printers can reach, so it shouldn't get clipped. If you're sending the file to a print shop that trims pages, ask them how much margin they need, and use the top or bottom position that gives you more room.

Scanned documents work fine too. The number is added on top of the scanned page image, so it doesn't matter whether the PDF contains real text or just pictures of pages.

What you can't change

To keep things simple, the numbers are small, dark gray, and plain: just the digit, with no “Page 3 of 20” format, and no choice of font or size. Check the result by scrolling through it, especially pages with busy margins, to make sure nothing overlaps.

As with everything else on Foldryn, this runs in your browser, so your document isn't uploaded while the numbers are added.