27 jan 2023
It’s common politeness to number the pages in any document that is four pages or longer. It makes your document easier to navigate and reference and signals that you care about your reader, which is key to successful communication. If you forgot to add page numbers to your document and don’t have access to a PC, there’s an easy way to do it without one. In this post, we’re going to tell you how to add page numbers to PDFs on mobile devices:
There are quite a few mobile solutions that allow you to add page numbers to PDF documents, but not all of them are equal in terms of convenience. In some, like Adobe, you will need to add text boxes to each page and type page numbers manually. In others, like Camscanner for example, you can add page numbers automatically to all pages, but you’ll need to pay for a subscription first.
In the iScanner app, you can add page numbers automatically to all pages for free. The process is very simple.
1. First, install the iScanner app on your iPhone or iPad: iOS. The app will not charge you or get you subscribed to anything, and it’s ad-free.
2. Open the PDF in question in iScanner. You can import it directly from the Files app, your email, or any messenger.
3. Tap Text at the bottom of the screen.
4. Within the text menu, tap Numbering.
5. Choose one of the three available formats: 1, page 1, page 1 of X. You can also choose the alignment (left, right, or center) and positioning on the page (top or bottom).
6. If you don’t need the page number to show on the first page, untick the box Start with page one at the bottom of the screen.
7. Once you’re happy with everything, hit Save. You can now share the PDF via email or any messenger or print directly from the iScanner app.
If you have the PDF available on your mobile device, the process is very straightforward. However, it might not always be the case. What if you’ve printed your work to hand it in and then realized that the page numbers are missing? No worries! This merely adds one extra step to the process—you’ll just need to scan the hard-copy version of your document with the iScanner app and then go through the steps listed above.
It’s worth keeping in mind that if you’re planning to print afterward and you need your document to look tidy and professional, you need to scan in high resolution. Luckily, in iScanner, you can scan 300 dpi and it uses an AI algorithm that can remove shadows, creases, and perspective distortions. On top of that, in case you’ve noticed more fundamental problems than missing page numbers and urgently need to make a few edits, you can convert to DOCX and make them right in the app.
