Add Page Numbers

Adding page numbers means stamping text onto every page at a consistent position. SwitchPDF draws each number as native PDF text (not as an image) using pdf-lib, so the numbers remain searchable, selectable, and crisp at every zoom level. The font used is Helvetica — embedded into the PDF so the numbers render identically on any device.

You pick the position (top-left, top-center, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-center, bottom-right) and we calculate the coordinates for each page based on its individual size. This matters because PDFs can mix portrait and landscape pages, A4 and letter sizes, and unusual custom sizes — a fixed pixel offset would land in the wrong place on different page formats. We use proportional positioning relative to each page's actual dimensions.

The starting number, increment, and "skip first page" options are common requirements that other tools handle poorly. Skip-first is essential for documents with a cover page (numbering should start at "1" on the page after the cover, not "2"). Custom starting numbers let you continue numbering across multi-file documents — e.g., page 47 in part 2 of a long report.

Because we draw numbers on top of the existing content, original text and images are not disturbed. If the numbers overlap with content on your page, change the position or font size — you can always re-run the tool with different settings.