PDF Page Numberer
Add page numbers to any PDF — position, format, starting number, skip pages. 100% in your browser.
PDF Page Numberer
Position
How to add page numbers
Add your PDF
Drag your file onto the dropzone or click to choose. The tool shows the page count once loaded.
Pick a position
The 3×3 grid corresponds to where on each page the number lands. Bottom-center is the standard for most documents; top-right is common for legal briefs; bottom-right is common for tabbed binders.
Choose a format
Presets cover the common cases — plain number, fraction-of-total ("1 / 10"), "Page 1 of 10", and so on. For anything else, pick Custom… and use {n} for the current page and {total} for the total. Example: Document A — page {n}.
Set start number and skip if needed
Start number defaults to 1. Skip first N pages defaults to 0 — bump it up if your PDF starts with a cover or TOC that shouldn't be numbered. The starting number applies to the FIRST numbered page, not the first physical page.
Click Add page numbers and download
pdf-lib draws the text on each page at the calculated position and saves the result as {original}-numbered.pdf. The page rotation is respected — numbers land correctly even on rotated pages.
PDF page numbering — text drawn on top, not text replaced
Adding page numbers to a PDF is a different operation from editing the document's text. The PDF format stores existing page content as a sequence of drawing operators (place this font, draw this string at this position); adding a page number is appending more drawing operators to that sequence. The existing content isn't touched. The output PDF is the input PDF plus one extra text drawing per page — meaning the file size barely changes, and any existing text remains 100% intact and selectable in your reader.
Why this matters for legal and audit documents
In legal, audit, and compliance workflows, the integrity of the source document is paramount. A tool that "edits" a PDF to add page numbers — by re-rendering pages, re-flowing text, or modifying existing content streams — produces a file that's no longer the original. Forensic tools can detect the difference. This tool draws over the page rather than modifying it: the original drawing operators are unchanged, an additional drawing operator is appended for each page number. From a document-integrity standpoint, that's the correct behaviour.
Page numbers should be drawn ON the document, not edited INTO the document. Every reputable PDF tool does it the additive way — only the cheapest pretend-tools re-render the page.
Numbers the reader sees, and numbers the reader's app shows
The numbers this tool draws are part of the page — printed, visible in every reader. PDF also has page labels, a separate feature that changes what a reader's page box shows ("iii", "iv", then "1"), without drawing anything. Skip-first-N covers the common case of an unnumbered cover or contents page, and {total} counts only the numbered pages.
What this tool does — and what it doesn't yet
This tool adds simple text-based page numbers at one of 9 positions, with format presets and a custom template, starting from any number, with optional skip-first-N. What it does not do yet: alternate odd/even page positions (inside-margin pagination for bound documents), Roman numerals for front-matter, automatic font-matching to existing document fonts, or color customisation. Those are on the roadmap. For now, if you need elaborate alternating-page pagination, a desktop tool like PDF Annotator or Acrobat is the right choice — for plain "add bottom-centre numbers to this document", this tool is quicker and never uploads the file. Numbers use Helvetica, which only has Western European characters, so a format like 第{n}页 is refused with that reason.
Physical pages against page labels, the 14 standard fonts, and rotation flags
PDF page numbers are drawn as text on top of the existing page — the source content is untouched. The output is the input plus one text-drawing operation per page.
The "physical page" (sheet 5 of 10) and "logical page" (Section A, page 3) can differ. Skip-first-N lets you handle that — the numbering starts after the skipped pages.
The PDF spec has a separate concept called Page Labels that lets a reader display alternative labels (e.g., "iii, iv, 1, 2") in the page navigator. This tool adds visible numbers; Page Labels are a separate (and complementary) feature.
Helvetica is one of the 14 "standard" PDF fonts — every PDF reader can render it without embedding the font in the file. That is why numbering adds so little: about 196 bytes per page in a 1,000-page test.
If a page already has a rotation flag (90°, 180°, 270°), our tool reads that rotation and draws the number in the VISIBLE orientation, not the raw page orientation. The number lands where you expect.
This tool's default margin is 24 pt — a third of an inch, about 8.5 mm — from the page edge; raise it if the number collides with a footer.
Numbering keeps the document's creation date and sets its modification date; the page's own text stays selectable underneath.
Custom format templates support {n} (current page) and {total} (total of NUMBERED pages, not physical pages). That's why "Page {n} of {total}" with 2 skipped pages on a 10-page doc says "Page 1 of 8" through "Page 8 of 8".
Numbering a 1,000-page test file took 0.6 seconds on a desktop browser — drawing one short line per page is light work.
The output grew by about 196 bytes per numbered page in that test — the text operation plus the page's updated resources.
FAQ
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No. The pdf-lib library runs in your browser. Your PDF is read into memory, drawn on, and saved straight back to your downloads folder. Open DevTools → Network and watch — zero outbound traffic.
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Yes — set "Skip first N pages" to 1. The cover page is left untouched and page 2 of the document becomes "page 1" in the numbering (or whatever you set Start number to). Set to 2 for cover + TOC, etc.
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Use
{n}for the current page number and{total}for the total numbered pages. Example:Page {n} of {total}produces "Page 1 of 10" through "Page 10 of 10". You can include any other text:App. A — {n}produces "App. A — 1", "App. A — 2", and so on. -
Not yet — this version uses Helvetica (a built-in PDF standard font). Custom font embedding is on the roadmap. For most documents Helvetica is the safe choice since it's universally supported and doesn't add to the file size.
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Yes. The tool reads each page's rotation and draws the number in the VISIBLE orientation. A landscape-rotated page gets its "bottom-center" number at the bottom of the visible page, not on the rotated logical bottom.
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No — not even one that opens without a password. "Restriction-only" protection (an owner password that blocks printing or editing) still encrypts the file's text and images, and pdf-lib, the library this tool uses, cannot decrypt them, so anything it saved would be broken. Since 30 September 2026 the tool says so as soon as you add such a file, instead of numbering a copy that will not open. Save an unprotected copy first, in software that has the password.
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Yes. The page numbers are drawn as real PDF text, not as images — they're selectable, searchable, and copyable. The original document content is untouched. Existing text remains selectable as before.
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Not yet — the format template uses Arabic numerals only. The common academic pattern of Roman front-matter then Arabic body matter is on the roadmap. For now, the workaround is to split the PDF into front and body, number each separately, and merge them back.
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They are drawn on top of whatever's at that position. If the bottom margin of your document is already used (existing footer, watermark), the page number may overlap. Bump the margin value up — try 36 or 48pt — to push the number further from the edge into clearer space.
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Yes on iOS Safari and Chrome on Android. The position grid wraps to a 3×3 touch target. Numbering is light work — a 1,000-page file took 0.6 seconds on a desktop browser, and a phone is slower but still quick.
Method & sources
How it computes
Draws the formatted number ({n}, {total} = numbered pages only) in Helvetica at one of nine positions, a margin from the edge (default 24 pt), rotation-aware, after skipping the first N pages. Formats Helvetica cannot encode are refused up front; the document's creation date is kept.
What this tool implements
- ISO 32000-1: Helvetica is one of the standard 14 fonts, which need no embedding; page labels are a separate feature that changes what a reader's page box shows without drawing anything.
- Tested 2026-09-29: numbering a 1,000-page file took 0.6 s in a desktop browser and added about 196 bytes per page — the page had said 2 s and 50 bytes. Its "24 pt is Word's default" claim was removed.
- It used to overwrite the document's creation date; it now sets the modification date. A non-Latin format such as 第{n}页 now gets a plain reason instead of pdf-lib's encoding error.
Sources
- ISO. ISO 32000-1:2008, Portable document format — Part 1: PDF 1.7 (9.6.2.2 Standard Type 1 fonts; 12.4.2 Page labels). https://www.iso.org/standard/51502.html
- Hopding A. PDF-LIB. https://pdf-lib.js.org/
Pick up where you left off
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