Add Header and Footer to PDF

1. 1Add the PDF you want to label.
2. 2Type a header, a footer, or both — use {page}, {total} and {date} where you want those filled in.
3. 3Choose the alignment, the text size and how far from the edge it sits.
4. 4Tick Skip the first page if the document opens with a cover, then save.

The text is drawn into each page in the standard Helvetica font, so it stays selectable, searchable and sharp however far you zoom in. Nothing is re-rendered, so the rest of the page is exactly what it was.

Three placeholders are filled in as the pages are written: {page} becomes the current page number, {total} the number of pages, and {date} today's date in your computer's regional format. A footer of Page {page} of {total} is the common case and is filled in for you to start with.

Alignment is calculated from the actual width of the finished string in the chosen font, so centred text is genuinely centred and right-aligned text sits the same distance from the edge on every page, including pages of different widths.

The file is read into your browser's memory, changed there, and handed straight back to you. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no queue and no copy sitting on a server afterwards.

• Use Page {page} of {total} in the footer of anything that will be printed, so a missing page is obvious.
• Put a reference number, client name or “Draft” in the header of documents that circulate in several versions.
• Tick Skip the first page when the document opens with a cover.
• If the text collides with content at the edge, increase the distance from the edge rather than shrinking the text.

• How to add page numbers to a PDF — and get them right
• How to watermark a PDF — draft, confidential or copy
• How to add a header or footer to every page of a PDF