When your PDF already has page numbers
Many PDFs arrive with page numbers already printed on the pages — exported from Word, scanned from paper, or put together from several documents. Page Numbers PDF adds numbers; it does not find or remove the ones that are already there. Here is how to get a clean result anyway.
Printed numbers and page labels are different things
- Printed numbers are part of the page content, like any other text or image on it. They show when you print the page.
- Page labels are what a PDF viewer shows in its page box or thumbnail list (for example “iii” or “12”). They belong to the file’s settings, not to the page, and they are not printed.
Page Numbers PDF adds printed numbers. It doesn’t change page labels, and the page box of your viewer may keep showing its own numbering.
If the pages already show a number
Existing printed numbers stay where they are. To avoid two numbers on top of each other:
- Look at where the old numbers sit — say, bottom center.
- Choose a different position for the new ones, for example top right or bottom right.
- Check several pages in the preview, including the first and the last. A number that collides with old text is visible there before anything is saved.
If the old numbers are simply wrong, the cleanest fix is to change them in the source document (the Word file, for instance) and export the PDF again. Removing printed text from a PDF is an editing task; this tool doesn’t do it.
Continue an existing sequence
Sometimes only part of a document is numbered — say, chapters that end on page 48. To continue:
- Choose PDF page range and set Start on PDF page to the first page without a number.
- Set First number to the next number in the sequence, here 49.
- Match the position and size of the existing numbers as closely as you can, and compare in the large preview.
Scanned documents
In a scanned PDF, old page numbers are part of the image. They can’t be selected or changed, but new numbers can still be added on top as real text, in a free corner of the page.
Good to know
- The new numbers are selectable text and are marked as page numbering for assistive technology; the old ones stay as they were.
- Adding numbers changes the document, so a digital signature will not be valid in the new file.
- The original file is not changed; the result is a new PDF called yourfile-numbered.pdf.