Number pages the way books do
Word processors number pages; books number folios, and the conventions are older than any software: no number on the title page or a chapter's opening, outer corners rather than centred (a centred folio is where the thumb goes), verso left and recto right. This stamps that convention onto an existing PDF — starting page, first folio, skips and size all yours — in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Front matter before this page stays unnumbered.
Roman-numbered prelims? Set start past them and this to 1.
Chapter openers, part titles, full-page art — the pages books leave bare.
The parity follows the folio number, not the sheet — insert blanks first if duplex parity also matters.
What the settings are for
Start at / first reads
Front matter stays unnumbered when you start at page 3. Running roman numerals through the prelims? Start numbering past them with the first folio reading 1 — the book way.
The skip box
Chapter openers, part titles, full-page art — the pages books leave bare, comma-separated. The count keeps moving; the ink just doesn't show.
Outer corners
The default puts folios where a century of bookmaking put them: bottom-left on versos, bottom-right on rectos, following the NUMBER's parity, not the sheet's. Bottom-centre is there for reports and theses.
Questions people actually ask
Does my PDF get uploaded anywhere?
No. The folios are drawn onto the pages in your browser's memory and the file handed straight back. A thesis or manuscript is nobody's business but yours and your printer's.
Why is page 1 a recto?
Convention: in a printed book, page 1 is the first right-hand page, odd numbers are rectos, evens versos. The stamper follows the folio number's parity, so front matter shifts it correctly.
Can it number bottom-centre for my thesis?
Yes — the position setting. Theses and reports conventionally centre; books don't. Both are one click, and the tool defaults to the book.
What font and colour does it use?
Helvetica at your chosen size, in a quiet grey. If your book is set in something specific, set your own folios in the layout tool — this is for PDFs that arrive finished but numberless.
Will it overwrite existing numbers?
It draws on top; anything already there stays there. If the file carries folios you don't want, remove them at the source or cover them deliberately — the tool won't guess.
The studio folios every chat book this way, automatically.
See it work — freeThis is one of the tools — or see everything we’ve written.