Add page numbers but skip the cover page

2026-10-27

A cover, a title page or a form in front of a report usually shouldn’t carry a page number. To leave it out, start numbering on the second page of the PDF.

Steps

1. Open the PDF in Page Numbers PDF.
2. Under Pages, choose PDF page range.
3. Set Start on PDF page to 2. The end page stays at the last page.
4. Set First number — this is the one decision to make (see below).
5. Choose position, format, size and color as usual, check the preview, and press Add Page Numbers.

The cover keeps its look; no number is added to it. In the preview it appears faded, as an unnumbered page.

Should the first numbered page show 1 or 2?

Both are common, and the tool does whichever you choose:

• The cover doesn’t count. Set First number to 1. Page 2 of the file shows 1.
• The cover counts, but isn’t printed. Set First number to 2. Page 2 of the file shows 2, as in many books and theses where the title page is page 1 without showing it.

If you use a format with a total (“1 / 10”, “Page 1 of 10”), the total follows the same choice. It is always the last number printed: with a 12-page file and the cover skipped, it is 11 if you start at 1 and 12 if you start at 2.

More than one page before the content

The same setting covers a cover plus a table of contents, or several front pages: set Start on PDF page to the first page of the content, for example 4. Front pages can’t be numbered separately with Roman numerals; they stay without a number.

Good to know

• The cover is never detected automatically; you decide where numbering starts.
• If the back cover should stay unnumbered too, set End on PDF page to the page before it.
• The original PDF is not changed; you get a new file called yourfile-numbered.pdf.