Guide

How to add page numbers to a PDF

Stamp clean page numbers onto a PDF, in the format and position you want, or add sequential Bates numbers for legal and discovery work. The original pages are left untouched underneath.

Numbers on top, content untouched

Page numbers are drawn as an overlay in the margin, so nothing in the page itself moves or changes. You control the wording and where they sit.

Add page numbers online

1. Open pdfblah.com and drop in your PDF.
2. Add a change → Page numbers.
3. Pick a format such as Page {n} of {total}, and a position (bottom-centre or bottom-right).
4. Download.

Bates numbering for legal work

Bates numbering stamps a running, zero-padded number (often with a prefix) on every page, so a set of documents can be referenced precisely. From the command line:

pdfblah bates in.pdf out.pdf --prefix ACME --digits 6 --start 1
# stamps ACME000001, ACME000002, ...

Three ways to do it

Same engine every way, so the result is identical. Pick whichever fits:

• Online at pdfblah.com — nothing to install, free while we're testing.
• On your machine, free and private (nothing is uploaded): pip install pdfblah, then pdfblah gui opens the same tool in your browser.
• Command line, for scripts and bulk jobs:

pip install pdfblah

# "Page 1 of 10" at the bottom centre
pdfblah number in.pdf out.pdf --format "Page {n} of {total}"

# just the number, bottom-right, starting at 1
pdfblah number in.pdf out.pdf --format "{n}" --position bottom-right

# legal Bates numbering with a prefix
pdfblah bates in.pdf out.pdf --prefix ACME --digits 6

The app and CLI are open source (MIT). See the pdfblah project on GitHub.