Number Pages

• Reference-ability. "See page 47" only works if pages have numbers.
• Print sorting recovery. Dropped a stack of printed pages? Numbers let you reassemble.
• Legal and academic citation. Some citation styles require explicit page references.
• Reader orientation. Knowing "X of Y" is a quality-of-life baseline.
• Post-merge or post-reorder. Existing page numbers in the content become wrong after editing the page order — add fresh ones.
• Stripped-and-re-paginated docs. After deleting pages or extracting subsets, re-paginate.

1. Open Number Pages.
2. Drop your PDF.
3. Pick a position (bottom-center, top-right, bottom-corner alternating).
4. Pick a format: 1, Page 1, 1 of 10, Page 1 of 10, custom.
5. Pick a starting number (default 1; useful to skip a cover page).
6. Pick font, size, and color.
7. Click Apply and download.

• 1 — minimal, classic. Best for general docs.
• Page 1 — explicit. Best when there's other content in the footer.
• 1 of 10 — total visible. Best for short reports and proposals.
• Page 1 of 10 — most explicit. Best for legal and contracts.
• Custom — for things like "Section A.1, Page 1" or "Chapter 3, p. 1." Currently requires a custom format string.

You usually don't want "Page 1" on the cover. Two ways to handle:

• Set starting page to 2. The cover gets no number; page 2 is labeled "1."
• Set start-numbering-from-physical-page to 2. Same effect — covers and front matter skipped.

For roman numerals on front matter and arabic on body (the classic book pattern), the current tool doesn't mix numbering schemes. Workaround: split, number each section separately, merge.

• Bottom center. Most common, hardest to miss.
• Bottom corner, alternating. Outside-edge of odd/even pages — classic book style.
• Top corner. Common in academic papers and reports.
• Top center. Less common; reserved for header-with-title layouts.

Whichever you choose, leave at least 10mm of margin from the page edge so printers don't clip the numbers.

• Numbers overlap existing footers. Pick a different position, or use Edit PDF to cover the old footer with a white box first.
• Existing page numbers in content didn't go away. Adding new numbers doesn't remove old ones — they're part of the original page content. Either accept the duplication or cover with white rectangles via Edit PDF.
• Numbers are cut off when printed. Increase the margin from the page edge.
• Font looks generic. The tool uses standard PDF fonts. For custom fonts, embed via Edit PDF on each page (slow).

Page numbering tends to happen on final-state documents about to be distributed. Uploading these to a web tool means the document briefly lives on a remote server. SwissArmyPDF numbers in your browser using pdf-lib — the file never leaves your device.

• Flatten PDF — lock the numbers as permanent page content.
• Watermark PDF — add a status mark alongside numbers.
• Compress PDF — shrink the numbered file.
• Merge PDF — combine numbered sections into a final delivery.