How Do I Add Page Numbers To PDF Files Opened In Preview?

In Preview, is there a way to add page numbers as footers?

When I open PDF file in Preview and print the pages, I would like to be able to number them so when the pages get mixed up, I know which order they should be arranged.
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Bob Kunes

Comments: 5 Responses to “How Do I Add Page Numbers To PDF Files Opened In Preview?”

You can't do it in Preview. Typically, page numbers or any change to a PDF should be done in the app that was used to create the PDF. So if the document was made in Pages, you'd use the Pages document, add page numbers in Pages, then print from Pages. Or Word, or InDesign, etc. It is easy to do in any of those apps.

Otherwise, you may be able to do it in Adobe Acrobat. I don't have that installed at the moment, so I'm not sure. But at the very least you could add a page number to each page individually.

Of course you could do that with Preview too. You could use the annotation tools to add a small text box with the number 1 on the first page. Then copy and paste that box to page 2 and change the text to 2, etc. Not sure how many pages are involved here so I don't know if this is a viable solution for you.

It seems this is a common question as there are a lot of "free" websites that claim that if you upload your PDF to them, they will return a page-numbered version to you. I hate trusting sites like that with your document, and they probably all ask for you to sign up or at least give your email address.

Strangely though, Adobe offers this on a web page on its site. https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/add-pdf-page-numbers.html So I supposed if I had to do it I'd trust Adobe itself with my PDF more than some site I've never heard of. But they still seem to ask for a login. I have an Adobe account so I tried it and it worked.

Along these same lines is there an easy way to add text (such as the word "Page") to a header or footer of a Numbers file. The only thing I can figure out is that you need to first choose Print from the menu and then in the small index menu that appears to the left of the dialog box you can paste the text into the header that you want to add (I haven't figured out a way to type text directly into the header). This is cumbersome especially when dealing with spaces and ad hoc tweaks.

Jonathan: Yes, first choose Print. Then you have header and footer fields you can fill out.

Along these same lines, is there a way to change the page numbers of a PDF in Preview to a custom word? I currently have a PDF where I want the first page to be called Kitchen and the second page called Bath. I've heard that you used to be able to double-click on the page number and rename it but not sure if that's true.

Steve: Not in Preview, no. You should go back to the original document to change it. You can use a pro app (Adobe Acrobat) to edit the PDF. Or, you can paste a white box over the words as an annotation of sorts (crude).