RunLocalTools

Add Page Numbers & Headers/Footers to a PDF — Free

Stamp page numbers, dates, or a running header and footer onto any PDF, drawn as real selectable text on the original pages. Free, private, runs entirely in your browser.

What it does

This tool adds page numbers and/or a running header and footer line to every page of a PDF you choose. Unlike tools that flatten your document into images to add a stamp, this one draws directly onto your existing pages — so every other line of text, every image, every hyperlink stays exactly as it was, still selectable and searchable.

How it works

The stamp text is drawn as genuine vector text using the PDF’s own standard fonts, positioned at one of nine anchor points (corner, edge, or center) with a margin you control. Because it’s real text rather than a picture, it stays crisp at any zoom level and adds almost nothing to the file size. If your header or footer text uses characters outside the standard font set — CJK, emoji, some symbols — the tool automatically renders just that one piece of text as a small image instead of failing or mangling it, while leaving everything else on the page as real vector content.

Page numbering supports a “start at” offset and Arabic or Roman numerals, and — this is the detail that trips up most numbering tools — when you skip the first page or restrict numbering to a page range, the count restarts cleanly from your chosen starting number on whichever page is actually the first one stamped, instead of jumping straight to “2” the way a naive page-index approach does.

How to use it

  1. Drop in your PDF.
  2. Turn on page numbers, a header, a footer, or any combination, and pick a template like Page {n} of {total} or write your own using {n}, {total}, {date}, and {filename}.
  3. Set the position for each with the nine-point anchor grid, and choose font, size, color, and opacity.
  4. If it’s a cover-page-style document, check “Skip page 1” so numbering starts at 1 on the real content, not the cover.
  5. Restrict to a page range if you only want certain pages stamped — the preview updates live as you adjust settings.
  6. Download the stamped PDF.

FAQ

Will this affect the selectable text already in my PDF? No — the tool only adds new content on top of your existing pages. Nothing in the original document is re-rendered, resized, or rasterized.

Can I number only some pages, like chapter 2 onward? Yes. Enter a page range (e.g. 5-20) and only those pages get stamped; everything else is left untouched.

What happens if my header text uses non-Latin characters? The tool detects this automatically and swaps that specific stamp to a small embedded image so it still displays correctly — you’ll see a note if this applies to your settings.

Can I put the page number on alternating sides for a book-style layout? Yes — the “alternate left/right on odd/even pages” option mirrors your chosen position across the page for that classic printed-book numbering style.

Does this add a diagonal watermark or logo? No — this tool is specifically for page numbers and header/footer text lines. A large diagonal or tiled watermark is a different kind of stamp with its own tool on this site.

Working with other formats

If your document started out as a Word file, convert it with our Word → PDF tool first, then come back here to add page numbers. And if you’re numbering pages across several PDFs you’re about to combine into one, it’s worth using our PDF merge tool beforehand so the numbering runs continuously through the whole combined document instead of restarting per file.