Why page numbers matter more than people think
A document without page numbers is difficult to reference, impossible to assemble correctly after printing, and easy to drop. In offices, that leads to sentences like “the clause on the third page from the back”, which is exactly the kind of instruction that causes mistakes.
For students submitting a dissertation or project report, page numbering is usually specified in the guidelines and is checked. For legal documents, exhibit numbering matters. For printed booklets, page numbers are what let a reader find their place after putting the file down.
Companies charge for this. It is one of those small operations where a subscription is genuinely hard to justify, which is why a free tool that writes correct, positionable page numbers is more useful than it sounds.
Choosing a format that suits the document
“1” is the modern minimal choice, ideal for reports and papers where the number is a reference rather than an announcement.
“1 of 12” tells the reader both where they are and how much is left, which is helpful for anything that will be printed and potentially reassembled — and essential for a document that may be split.
“Page 1 of 12” is the safest option for official submissions, because there is no ambiguity about what the number refers to.
“Sheet 1 of 12” is the convention for legal and court documents, where “sheet” is the accepted term.
Roman numerals belong to front matter: a preface, a table of contents or a foreword that is numbered separately from the main text. If your document has such a section, number it in roman and the body in arabic by running the tool twice on page ranges.
“– 1 –” is the style used in many typeset books, and it looks pleasingly formal on a page of prose.
Position, margin and readability
The bottom centre is the default for a reason: it is where readers look, it never collides with headers, and it survives being photocopied with a slightly crooked edge. Bottom right is the second most common convention and reads naturally as part of the page furniture.
The margin setting is measured from the page edge. At 22 points (about 8 mm) the number sits comfortably inside most printed margins. If your document is going to be bound or hole-punched, push it further in — 30 to 40 points — so the number does not disappear into the binding. If the page already has a footer line or text at the bottom, check the preview and move the number up before saving.
Font size 10 to 12 points matches most body text, which is what you want: present but not distracting. Grey numbers are less intrusive than black on a densely printed page. And keep the same font family as the document — a Helvetica number on a Times document looks like an afterthought.
Handling cover pages, front matter and existing numbers
The most common request is “number everything except the cover”. Tick “Skip the first page” and the cover stays clean while numbering starts from 2 on the second page — which is what you want, because the second page is genuinely page 2 of the document.
If you need numbering to start at a different value — say the first numbered page should read “5” because it is a continuation — set the start number accordingly. The counter increments from the first stamped page, so this behaves the way a page numbering tool should.
What if the PDF already has printed page numbers on it? If they are part of the page image, as with a scan, the new numbers will sit alongside them. In that case, choose a position that does not collide — if the old numbers are at the bottom centre, put the new ones at the top right — or use Crop PDF to trim the old numbering strip off the edge of the page before adding new numbers.