Number the pages of a PDF in your browser
Once the pages of a merged report, a scanned contract or a thesis chapter are in one file, readers want to say "see page 14". This page writes a number on every page you choose, in the format and place you choose, and shows the result on a preview before you save.
The numbers are drawn on top of the existing pages. Your original file is not changed, and nothing is uploaded.
Adding page numbers in seven steps
- Drop the PDF onto the drop zone or choose it. If the file is protected, enter its password so the tool can read the pages.
- Pick the Text: a bare number, Page 1, Page 1 of 10, 1 / 10, a number between dashes, or your own text.
- Choose the Number style (1, 2, 3 or roman numerals) and the First number.
- Pick the Position: bottom or top, left, center or right. Set the font, size, color and the distance from the page edge.
- To skip pages, type the ones to number into Pages to number, for example
2-to leave out the cover. - Look at the preview and use the arrows to check other pages, including pages that are turned.
- Press Add page numbers and save PDF, then Download PDF.
Formats, roman numerals and the first number
In your own text, {n} stands for the page number and {total} for the last number, so Invoice 2024 – {n}/{total} becomes "Invoice 2024 – 3/12". Roman numerals suit prefaces and appendices: set the style to i, ii, iii or I, II, III.
The first number lets a second file continue where the first one ended. If part one has 40 pages, set 41 for part two. When you skip the cover with 2-, the cover still counts, so page 2 shows the number 2. To make the first numbered page show 1 instead, set the first number to 0 less than that, or split the cover off first.
What gets drawn, and what does not
- The number is real text in one of the three standard PDF fonts, so it stays sharp at any zoom.
- If your text needs letters that these fonts cannot draw, such as Cyrillic or some Polish letters, the tool draws that label as a picture instead.
- Pages stored turned and pages with a crop box get the number in the right corner of what you see.
- Existing numbers in a scanned page or a footer stay. The tool only adds, so it can cover nothing and can clash with a footer that is already there; raise the distance from the edge then.
- It does not build a table of contents or bookmarks. A PDF may have up to 300 MB and 2,000 pages.
Common jobs
Merged files that now need one running count. Scans from a copier that has no page numbering. Submissions that ask for "Page x of y" in the footer. Handouts with roman numerals for the front matter and arabic numbers for the body: number the front pages in roman, then run the tool again on the rest with a start number.
Where your file stays
On your device. The PDF is read and written in the page, the preview is drawn locally, and no request is sent while you work. The Network panel of your developer tools shows that. The numbered file reaches you as a normal browser download.