Page numbers matter most when the pages leave the screen. A stapled contract with no numbers cannot be checked for missing sheets; a court filing or a tender submission is often required to have them. And numbers you asked your reader to print in the margin are not in the document at all - they are added at print time and vanish the moment someone else opens the file.

Using it in three steps

1. 1 Drop the PDF you want to number.
2. 2 Choose a corner, a starting number, and the pages that should carry a number.
3. 3 Press Add numbers and download. Check one page in the middle to confirm the position suits your margins.

Starting at a number other than one

Documents are often numbered as part of something larger. A chapter that begins on page 47 of a bound report, an appendix continuing a numbering that started elsewhere, a second volume - all of these need a first page that says something other than 1. The starting number sets what the first numbered page reads, and every page after it counts up from there.

Skipping the cover page

Leave the first page out by writing 2- in the pages box: the cover stays clean and numbering begins on the page after it. If you also want that second sheet to read 1, set the starting number to 1 as well - the pages you number and the number they start from are separate settings, and keeping them separate is what makes covers, prefaces and appendices possible.