Will the page number appear when I print?
Yes. The number is drawn into the page content stream, so it prints and appears in every viewer.
Add page numbers to a PDF
Stamp "Page 3 of 12" onto every page, drawn into the page itself. Nothing uploaded.
Drop PDF files here
or · max 10 files free
Why numbering a PDF is harder than it looks
Adding page numbers sounds like the easiest operation on this site. In practice it is the one that most often goes wrong, because the page numbers a viewer displays are not the same thing as numbers printed on the page. A scanned document has no text layer to update, and a PDF exported from Word often has a footer already, which a naive stamp lands on top of.
This tool draws the number into the page content stream at a fixed margin, so it appears everywhere: in every viewer, in print, and in a photocopy. It works identically on a scanned image page and on a text PDF because it does not care what is already on the page.
Numbering behaviour
What you get, and the edge cases worth knowing before you commit the file.
| Detail | Behaviour | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Page N of M | M is the total page count of the output, counting every input file in order. |
| Position | Bottom centre | Placed inside the bottom margin. If your document already has a footer there, the number lands on top of it. |
| Font size | 10 points, Helvetica | Small enough to be unobtrusive and large enough to read at normal zoom. |
| Colour | Mid grey | Reads as a printed folio rather than a markup annotation. |
| Cover page | Also numbered | There is no option to skip the first page in the free version. Split the cover off first if you need it unnumbered. |
| Scanned PDFs | Works | The number is drawn over the page image, so no OCR is needed. |
Five things people get wrong
Numbering a document that already has a footer
Word and LaTeX exports usually print their own page numbers. You end up with two, slightly out of alignment. Check a middle page before processing the whole file.
Numbering before merging
Number each file separately and you get three pages called "Page 1 of 5". Merge first, then number the combined document.
Numbering an already-numbered reprint
If the document was numbered in print, the scan carries those numbers. Adding more will conflict. Crop or accept the originals.
Forgetting the cover
The cover gets a number like every other page. For a report with a cover page, split it off, number the body, then merge the cover back on.
Assuming numbers fix page count
Numbering adds a visible label, not a real PDF page counter. The viewer's page count is unchanged and unrelated.
Questions
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
Yes. The number is drawn over the page image, so no text layer is required.
Can I skip the first page?
Not in the free version — every page is numbered. Split the first page off, number the rest, then merge it back.
Can I change the position or font?
Not in the free web version. The desktop version exposes position, size, colour and a start-number offset.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Everything runs in the browser tab with no network requests after page load.
What happens to existing page numbers?
They stay where they are. This tool does not detect or remove them, so a document that was already numbered ends up with both.
Does it recompress the document?
No. The number is added as new content; existing pages are copied untouched, so image quality is unchanged.
Can I number multiple files at once?
Yes, up to 10. They are treated as one continuous document, so the numbering runs across all of them.
Need it without a browser tab?
PDFKit Desktop is a single offline file — no 10-file limit, page-range selection, per-page rotation, adjustable watermark, and it never needs a network connection. One-time $19, no subscription.
See PDFKit Desktop — $19