Free PDF Header & Footer Tool – Add Page Numbers Online

How Adding Headers, Footers, and Page Numbers Works

A header and footer tool stamps a line of text across the top and bottom of every page in a PDF, most often page numbers, but also dates, filenames, titles, or a document reference. This is one of those finishing touches that separates a rough export from a professional document. A report that says Page 3 of 24 in the footer is easy to reassemble if it is printed and dropped, a contract with a filename and date header is easy to file, and a thesis with Roman numerals on the front matter follows the exact convention examiners expect. The regular users are students formatting dissertations, office workers finalising reports, legal assistants numbering exhibits, and anyone printing a long document that needs to be navigable on paper. The tool works page by page using pdf-lib's drawText. First it embeds a standard font, then for each page it substitutes tokens in your header and footer text: {page} becomes the current page number, {total} the page count, {date} today's date, {time} the current time, and {filename} the document name. The page number itself can be formatted as a plain 1, as Page 1, as 1 of 20, or as lowercase Roman numerals for front matter. Placement is precise: the tool measures the exact pixel width of your text with the font's width function, then positions it left at the margin, centred by subtracting half the text width from half the page width, or right by subtracting the text width and margin from the page edge. Headers sit one font-height below the top margin and footers rest at the bottom margin, so text never runs off the page. A concrete example shows the options in play. Take a 20-page report with a cover page you do not want numbered. You set the footer to Page {page} of {total}, choose centre alignment, and set skip pages to 1 so numbering starts on the second physical page. The tool leaves the cover blank, then on the next page draws Page 1 of 20 centred at the bottom, continuing to Page 19 of 20 on the last page, because the total is recomputed after the skipped cover. Switch the format to Roman and the same pages read i, ii, iii, which is exactly how a preface or table of contents is conventionally numbered. Turn on book style and the alignment mirrors on odd and even pages, so numbers sit on the outer edge like a printed book. The everyday reasons are easy to list. A law clerk numbers a 60-page bundle of exhibits so a judge can be directed to a precise page. A student adds Page {page} of {total} to a dissertation and Roman numerals to the front matter to meet submission rules. An office manager stamps {filename} and {date} into the header of a monthly report so printed copies are self-identifying on a shelf. A teacher numbers a printed exam so pages cannot be shuffled or lost during marking. In each case the numbering is baked into the PDF itself, so it survives emailing, printing, and re-saving, unlike a numbering option set only in a printer dialog. A couple of pointers avoid the common traps. Use the skip-pages setting whenever a cover or blank should not carry a number, and remember the total adjusts to the numbered pages, not the physical count. The one hard limitation to know is character support: the standard PDF fonts only render basic Latin characters, so a header in Hindi, Chinese, or with emoji will not draw. Rather than crashing, the tool detects non-Latin text before it starts and shows a clear message asking for basic Latin, so you are never left with a broken file. Keep headers short enough to fit within the margins, since a very long line can extend toward the page edges. Everything runs in your browser through pdf-lib, so a confidential report or a legal bundle is processed entirely on your device and never uploaded to any server.

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