Starting page numbers on a later page of a PDF

The short answer

To add page numbers starting from page 3, apply numbering to pages 3 onwards only, then decide what the first printed number should be: 3 if the cover and contents count towards the total, or 1 if numbering should restart with the body. Those are two separate settings, and mixing them up is why the numbers stop matching the contents page.

Everything else in this post is about choosing between those two answers, and about a few things that look like page numbering but are not.

Which pages get a number, and what the number says

Page numbering in a finished PDF is text drawn onto each page, and any tool that adds it has to answer two questions. Which pages receive a number? And what number does the first of them show? A cover page is the obvious case where those answers diverge: it is page 1 of the file, and it should usually show nothing.

There are two conventions for what follows, and both are correct depending on the document.

• Counted but unmarked. The cover and contents count as pages 1 and 2 but carry no number, and the first visible number is 3. This is common in reports, theses and anything where the PDF's own page count and the printed numbers should agree.
• Restarted. The body starts again at 1 on the first page of real content. This is common in books and formal documents with front matter, and it means the third page of the file is labelled page 1.

Doing it in World of PDF

The Add Page Numbers tool has both settings as separate controls. The page range decides which pages get a number, so typing 3- leaves the first two pages clean. "First number shown" decides what the first numbered page says: 3 for counted-but-unmarked, 1 for a restart. Numbers can sit in any of six positions, and the format can be a plain number, "Page 3", or "3 of 24". It all runs in your browser, so a document that is about to be sent never goes anywhere else first.

One detail about the "of" total. In Add Page Numbers, the total counts the pages being numbered, which suits a restart: a 20-page file numbered from page 3 starting at 1 reads "1 of 18" through "18 of 18". If you want the counted convention, "Page 3 of 20", use the Headers and Footers tool instead, applied to pages 3 onwards with the text Page {page} of {pages}. There, {page} is the page's actual position in the file and {pages} is the whole document's page count, so the cover and contents are counted without being marked.

Roman numerals for front matter

Books and theses traditionally number front matter, such as the title page, contents and preface, in lower-case roman numerals, then restart in arabic numerals at the first chapter. That is two numbering sequences in one document, and it is easiest to produce where the document was written: word processors handle it with section breaks, each section carrying its own number format and starting value.

If you only have the PDF, apply numbering in two passes, one over the front matter and one over the body starting at 1. World of PDF's tools print arabic numerals only, so the roman sequence on the front matter has to come from the source document or another tool. Many style guides accept leaving front matter unnumbered entirely, which is a simpler fallback.

Page labels are not printed numbers

There is a second, invisible kind of page numbering in PDFs. A file can carry page labels: a table in the document catalogue saying how each range of pages should be named in the viewer's page box and thumbnails. Page labels can switch from roman to arabic, restart at any number and add a prefix such as A- for an appendix, so a viewer shows "iv" or "A-3" instead of the file's raw page position.

Labels change nothing on the page. They are not printed, and a reader looking at the paper or the page itself sees only what is drawn there. Printed numbers, conversely, do not change what the viewer shows in its page box. A well-made document has both and keeps them in agreement, so that typing the printed number into the viewer's page box goes to the right page. The tools here add printed numbers; they do not write page labels.

Bates numbering is a different job

Legal productions, tenders and regulatory filings often call for Bates numbers, which look like page numbers and serve a different purpose. A Bates number identifies a page within an entire set of documents rather than within one file. It is fixed width and zero-padded, such as ABC000042, so it sorts correctly; it carries a prefix identifying the matter or party; and it continues from one document to the next instead of restarting.

That makes skipping a cover the wrong instinct. A production normally stamps every page, cover included, because every page has to be citable. Use Bates Numbering for that, and keep ordinary page numbers for a document's own internal reference, such as its contents page.

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