Add page numbers to any PDF, entirely in your browser
Click or drag a PDF here
| Format | Page 3 of a 24-page file | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | Books, theses, minimal layouts |
1/24 | 3/24 | Compact contracts and specs |
1 of 24 | 3 of 24 | Reports, slide-deck exports |
Page 1 | Page 3 | Formal documents, filings |
Page 1 of 24 | Page 3 of 24 | The business default |
| Roman front matter | Page iii | Title page to TOC, then body restarts at Arabic 1 |
| Prefix / suffix | A-3 · v2 | Appendixes, versioned drafts |
With skip-first-page on, the title page stays clean and numbering begins on page 2 — the total in "of N" counts only numbered pages, so a 24-page file becomes Page 1 of 23 on its second page. That matches how word processors handle "different first page".
| Page size | Points | Inches | 36 pt margin equals |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Letter | 612 × 792 | 8.5 × 11 | 0.5 in from every edge |
| US Legal | 612 × 1008 | 8.5 × 14 | 0.5 in from every edge |
| A4 | 595.28 × 841.89 | 8.27 × 11.69 | 0.5 in (12.7 mm) |
| A5 | 419.53 × 595.28 | 5.83 × 8.27 | 0.5 in (12.7 mm) |
The tool reads each page's own dimensions, so mixed-size files (Letter appendices behind an A4 report) number consistently on both. Increase the margin if an existing footer collides with the number — 54 or 72 pt (0.75 or 1 in) gives the number its own line of margin.
Page numbering is the same operation a print shop does with a numbering stamp, applied digitally: walk every page in order, compute a label for it, and draw that label as real text at a fixed spot. This tool loads your file with the open-source pdf-lib engine (maintained as @cantoo/pdf-lib), embeds Helvetica once, and draws one text object per page at your chosen position.
With start number s and skip-first-page off, page p of the document gets number s + p − 1; the count N in "of N" formats is the page count (or one less when the first page is skipped). Roman style converts that number the classical way: 4 is iv, 9 is ix, 40 is xl, 90 is xc — the subtractive pairs — so page 14 becomes xiv and page 19 xix.
Position is computed per page from that page's own width and height. Bottom and top rows sit the baseline at the margin (and the margin plus the cap height down from the top edge); the middle row centers vertically. Right-aligned slots measure the label first with the embedded font's metrics, then subtract: x = pageWidth − margin − textWidth.
A 24-page report, US Letter (612 × 792 pt), defaults: bottom right, 36 pt margin, 10 pt Helvetica, format Page 1 of 24. The label on page one measures 56.31 pt wide, so its left edge sits at 612 − 36 − 56.31 = 519.69 pt, baseline 36 pt up from the bottom. Page 12's label is Page 12 of 24 — the extra digit widens it to 61.87 pt, so its left edge shifts to 514.13 pt; the right edges stay perfectly aligned. Centered instead, page one's number starts at (612 − 56.31) ÷ 2 = 277.85 pt. On A4 (595.28 pt wide), the same bottom-right label starts at 502.97 pt.
Now the front-matter variant: the same report with a title page gets numbered twice — pages 2-5 in roman (ii, iii, iv, v, continuing the convention that the title page counts silently as i), then the body restarts at Arabic 1 and runs Page 1 of 19 through Page 19 of 19 on the remaining 19 pages. Two quick passes in this tool, then merge the files.
Drop the PDF into the tool above, pick a position and a format (such as Page 1 of 24), and click Add numbers. The numbers are drawn as real text on an in-memory copy and you download it — no Adobe subscription, no upload, no watermark. On a phone or laptop it works the same, because the numbering engine (pdf-lib) runs inside your browser.
Bottom center is the classic book and report position; bottom right is the most common on business documents because it clears left-aligned footers. The working convention is half an inch (36 points) from the edge in 9-10pt type. What actually matters is consistency: pick one of the nine slots and use it on every page.
It is the folio format that shows both the current page and the total, like Page 12 of 24, so a reader always knows how much is left. In this tool the total N counts the pages that receive a number: with skip-first-page enabled on a 24-page file, page 2 is numbered Page 1 of 23 and the title page stays clean.
Yes. Reports and theses often number the front matter (title page, abstract, table of contents) in lowercase roman — i, ii, iii — and restart the main body at Arabic 1. Set the numbering style to i, ii, iii here for the front-matter file, then run the body file separately with Arabic numerals starting at 1, and merge the two.
No. The tool reads your file, draws the numbers on a copy held in memory, and hands you that copy as a download. The original on disk is never touched, and the numbers are added as new text objects — existing text, images, and form fields are not re-flowed or altered.
Numbering adds a font reference and one small text object per page, so a size bump of a few kilobytes is normal. If the file grows a lot, the copy lost some compression the original had — re-compressing afterwards with a PDF compression tool brings it back down.