How to add page numbers to a PDF
Last updated: 2026-07-28
If a client has ever called to say "I think page 3 is missing from the contract you sent," you already know why page numbers matter. PDFs assembled from several sources, or built from scans, routinely arrive without them, and once the source document is gone they are awkward to add.
Adding the numbers
Open the file in StickPDF and click Page numbers in the document tools row. The dialog asks for a format — 1, - 1 -, or 1 / N where N is the total page count; a position — left, centre, or right; and a start number, any value from 1 upwards.
Apply, and the numbers land at the bottom of every page in one pass, set in from the edge by 6% of the page width — about 12.5 mm on A4, 13 mm on US Letter, comfortably inside any office printer's non-printable margin. Click 'Download PDF' for a new merged file; the original stays as it was, and nothing leaves your machine.
Cover pages and the start number
This is what the start number is for. Suppose your proposal opens with a cover, then a table of contents, and the real content begins on the third sheet. Leave the start number at 1 and the cover gets numbered "1", so every reference in your contents page is off by two. That is how you end up saying "look at page 5" and watching half the room turn to a different sheet.
Most house styles leave front matter unnumbered and start page 1 on the first page of real content. Numbers go on every page here, so to clear the cover, apply the numbering, click the cover's number, and press Delete. The start number cannot go below 1, so you cannot offset backwards to absorb front matter: if the first content page must read 1, export the body pages on their own and number that file. The field works the other way too — when a report is split across files, setting the second to start at 47 continues the sequence.
Choosing a format: why 1 / N earns its keep
1 is the cleanest and fits anything read only on screen. - 1 - is the traditional report and filing convention, and the hyphens separate the folio from any other number near the bottom of the page.
1 / N is the one to reach for whenever the document will be printed and handed over. When the last page of a contract reads "12 / 12", the recipient knows the set is complete without counting. More importantly, if a staple pulls out or a copier double-feeds, "7 / 12" followed by "9 / 12" is caught instantly, whereas a bare "7" followed by "9" slips past people constantly.
Position depends on how it is printed
Centre is the safest default, because of double-sided printing: centred numbers fall in the same place on both sides of the sheet. Right-aligned numbers on a duplexed document sit on the outside edge of odd pages and the bound edge of even ones, which looks wrong to anyone used to a printed book — and mirroring on alternating pages is not available here. If the job is going out double-sided, choose centre.
Right suits single-sided documents stapled in the top-left corner: the reader's hand is already at the lower right to turn the page. Left is mostly an escape hatch for when the bottom-right corner already holds a document control number, a revision code, or a logo.
Check for collisions with an existing footer
StickPDF places the number on top of the page. It does not reflow the content to make room, the way a word processor inserts a footer region, so if the source PDF already carries something along the bottom — "Acme Ltd | 2026 | Confidential", a document reference, a firm name — the new number will overlap it.
Glance at the bottom of the first and last pages before applying. If there is a conflict, either choose a position where the strip is empty — if the footer is centred, go right — or apply the numbers and drag the overlapping ones upward, which is the reliable fix when footer content varies from page to page.
Adjusting them afterwards
Each number behaves like any other placed element: click to select, drag to move, resize with the corner handle, delete with the Delete key — the same handling as any image you place, covered in how to add an image to a PDF. Worth knowing up front: there is no single button that removes all the numbers again. You delete them page by page, so to change the format or position, reopen the original PDF and apply numbering fresh.
Crisp in print, but not searchable
The numbers are drawn onto a canvas and embedded as a transparent PNG rather than as PDF text, rendered at 3× resolution so the digits stay sharp in print. The trade-off is that in the exported file they are not selectable and not searchable, and screen readers will not announce them. For page numbers that is rarely a problem — nobody copies a folio — but if accessibility matters, note the numbering carries no text layer, and PDF viewers will not use it to sync their own page counter.