How to add a header and footer to a PDF

How to add a header and footer to a PDF, step by step

Adding a header or footer to a PDF means writing one line at the top or bottom of the pages, and it takes under a minute:

1. Open the Header and footer tool.
2. Drag the PDF into the window, or click to pick it.
3. Write the header, the footer, or both. You can leave one field empty, but not both: with nothing to write there is no job to do, and the tool says so instead of handing back an identical file.
4. Fine-tune the result: set the horizontal alignment, size, colour and distance from the margin. If you do not want every page, list the ones you want in the pages field, which takes ranges like 2-10 and single numbers, handy for skipping the cover.
5. Press apply. The processing runs on your computer, not on a server, and you get the PDF with the lines written on the pages you chose.

Nothing to install, no account and no upload wait. The result appears instantly, with the headers and footers already written into the file.

The {n}, {total} and {ficheiro} placeholders: automatic page numbers

Placeholders are the reason this tool is worth more than simply writing a line. Write {n} for the page number, {total} for the page count and {ficheiro} for the file name, each one fills itself in on every sheet.

For example, writing "Page {n} of {total}" in the footer gives "Page 7 of 42" on page seven, "Page 8 of 42" on page eight, and so on to the end. Without placeholders, whatever you write appears identically on every page, which is rarely what a footer is for: a fixed "Page 1" across two hundred sheets tells you nothing.

Tips for headers and footers

• Accents work. Western Latin covers the accents used in Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and the Nordic languages, plus the euro sign. This was measured, and an automated test guards it.
• Emoji and non-Latin scripts are refused, and for a good reason. The typeface in use cannot write emoji, arrows, Cyrillic, Greek or Chinese. If the tool did not refuse, the library would silently swap every unknown character for a "?" and save the file anyway, you would only find out on opening the PDF and seeing question marks in the middle of the footer across two hundred pages. So the tool refuses and names the characters involved.
• Long text shrinks to fit. When the line does not fit the page width, the font size is reduced until it does, down to a minimum of 4 points. The alternative would be text running off the margin with no warning. Below that minimum the tool refuses, because text you cannot read is no use.
• Line landed on top of the page content? Increase the distance from the margin. The tool writes where it is told: it does not know where the page text ends.
• The typeface is standard, so the file stays light. There is no typeface choice: a standard one is used, which needs no embedding.
• Only need the page number? The Number pages tool does just that, with no questions asked. This one lets you write whatever you want, top and bottom, with colour, size and position of your choosing.
• Want a line at an exact spot? Use the Add text tool. And if the document is missing a signature, Sign PDF sits in the same category.
• This tool adds, it does not remove. A header that is already in the PDF is part of the page content and is not erased.
• It works offline. Since all the processing runs in your browser, once the page has loaded you can add headers and footers with the network off.

Is adding a header and footer free? What are the limits?

This tool is part of the Premium subscription, EUR 1.99 a month, which removes the limits on every tool and adds OCR. Sign PDF opens on the free plan, with one signature a day.

Sources

• BestPDFInTheWorld, Cabeçalho e rodapé
• MDN, File API
• pdf-lib