How to add page numbers to a PDF
- Add your PDF. Drop it onto the box above, or tap to choose a file.
- Choose a position. Tap one of the six small page icons: top left, top centre, top right, bottom left, bottom centre or bottom right.
- Pick a style. Choose 1, Page 1, 1 / 10 or Page 1 of 10.
- Set the details. Enter the number to start at, choose Small, Medium or Large text, and switch on the cover option if the first page should stay unnumbered.
- Press Add page numbers, then download your numbered PDF.
Features
- Six positions in the header or footer area: left, centre or right, top or bottom.
- Four numbering styles, including page totals worked out for you.
- Custom start number for chapters, appendices and continued documents.
- Skip the cover page with one switch.
- Three text sizes with an automatic margin, so numbers sit neatly away from the page edge.
- Correct placement on rotated pages, so landscape pages are numbered where you expect.
- Clean, dark text in a standard sans-serif font that suits most documents.
- Original left untouched. You download a new, numbered copy.
Why use Fileora to number PDF pages
Page numbers make a document usable. Readers can say "see page 12" in a meeting, printed copies can be put back in order after they're dropped, and reviewers can refer to exact pages in their comments. Examiners, courts and many offices expect submitted documents to be numbered. Yet documents assembled from scans, exports and separate files usually arrive without them.
Fileora adds the numbers in your browser. Theses, legal bundles, tenders and reports are never uploaded, and there's no sign-up, no watermark and no page limit. The controls are sized for fingers, so numbering a document on a phone is as easy as on a computer.
Numbering works best as the last step. Put the pages in their final order with organize PDF, or bring several files together with merge PDF first, then number the finished document. To mark it as a draft or confidential as well, use watermark PDF.
Choosing a position and style
For most reports and essays, bottom centre with a plain number is the classic choice and never clashes with headings. Bottom right or top right suits documents that will be printed and flicked through, because the number sits where your thumb lands. Avoid a position where your pages already carry a footer, logo or signature line; check a page or two of the original before choosing.
Page 1 of 10 style helps with documents that travel as loose pages or are printed, since the reader can tell at once whether anything is missing. It's also common on contracts and forms. For long documents where space is tight, 1 / 10 gives the same information more compactly.
If your document has a cover and a contents page, you may prefer to number from the first page of the actual content. Switch on the cover option to skip page one. For more complex layouts, such as skipping several front pages, split them off with split PDF, number the main part, then merge everything back together.
Numbers use Western digits and the English words Page and of in the Page styles. For documents in other scripts, the plain number styles work well.