RemixPDF

Add page numbers to a PDF, free

Five formats, three positions, and the option to skip the cover — in which case the numbering starts at 2, so the printed number matches the page it sits on.

  • Number the pages, in the format you want.
  • Free
  • No signup
  • No watermark

Runs on your device

This tool is being built — the page below is a preview of what's coming.

What you have to hand while you work

Why it works

Five formats, each shown as it will read.

Just the number, number and total, the word Page, Page and total, or roman numerals — every option previews as the actual text that will appear, not as a name for it.

Skipping the cover does the arithmetic.

Number every page from 1, or leave the cover clean and start at 2 on page two — so the number printed on a page is the number of that page. It is the detail nobody notices until it is wrong.

It leaves existing numbers alone.

Numbers already printed into the document are part of the page image and cannot be replaced. This adds fresh numbering; it does not renumber what is there.

Page numbering looks like the simplest job in this whole set, and it has exactly one trap in it. If your document has a cover, and you number every page from 1, then the cover is page 1 and the first real page is 2 — but the reader looking at the first real page sees “2” printed on something they think of as the beginning. Number from the second page instead and start at 1, and now every number in the document is one less than the page it sits on. Either way something disagrees with something else.

The answer is to skip the cover and start at 2, which sounds like an odd default until you see it: the cover carries no number, page two says 2, page three says 3. The printed number always matches the page. This tool does that arithmetic for you, and states how many pages will be numbered before you commit to anything.

The five formats cover what documents actually use. Just the number for anything short. Number and total — “3 of 12” — for anything that might be printed and separated, which is most contracts. The word Page for reports and submissions. Roman numerals for front matter. Each is previewed as the text it produces rather than described, because “number and total” is a phrase and “3 of 12” is the thing you are actually choosing between.

One honest limitation, stated early rather than discovered late. Numbers already printed into a document are part of the page image, not data, so nothing here can renumber them — you would end up with two numbers on every page. Pagination in a PDF is not a field that recalculates the way it does in a word processor, and any tool claiming otherwise is drawing over the old number rather than replacing it.

Free, no signup, no page limit, and no watermark on the way out.


How it goes

  1. Open the PDF.

    It opens here, and the page you are shown is the page the numbering will start on.

  2. Pick a format.

    Each is shown as the text it produces — "3 of 12", "Page 3", "iii".

  3. Choose left, centre or right, and whether to skip the first page.

  4. Download it.

    The panel says how many pages will be numbered before you commit.

What you can check for yourself

Watch the network while you work — nothing leaves this device on the default path. Then go offline and keep working — it all still runs. The two-minute checks live at how your files are handled.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Skip the first page and numbering begins at 2 on the second page, so every printed number matches the page it is on.

Yes, as one of the five formats. Mixed schemes — roman for front matter, then arabic — are not supported yet.

No. Existing numbering is part of the page content, so this adds new numbering rather than editing the old. If both would show, remove the originals first or number a different corner.

Along the bottom, left, centre or right. Top placement and margins are not adjustable yet.

Not as a distinct feature. Sequential page numbers work, but prefixes and fixed digit counts are not there yet, and we would rather say so than let you find out on a filing.

Not step by step — numbering rewrites the whole file. Start again from the file you opened at any point.

Ready? Drop your PDF above and it opens right here.