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Bates numbering
Legal-style sequential stamps. Free, no sign-up.
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Bates numbering runs inside your browser — your file never reaches our servers.
How to add Bates numbering
Bates numbering stamps a unique sequential identifier on every page — standard practice in legal discovery so any page can be cited exactly.
- Select your PDF. One document, or run several in sequence.
- Set the prefix and start number. For example B- with six digits gives B-000001.
- Download. You are told the first and last label stamped, as a record.
Why the label lands where it does
Discovery sets are mostly scans, and a scanned set is rarely all one way up. Before stamping, Bates numbering reads each page’s rotation flag, works out where the corner you chose actually falls on the page as it will be displayed, and turns the label to match. A landscape page in the middle of a portrait bundle still gets its number in the bottom-right of the page you are looking at, reading left to right. Add page numbers measures against the stored page box instead: fine for a document you produced yourself, wrong for a mixed scan, and most of the reason these are two tools.
The label is 10 point Helvetica in near-black, 24 points in from both edges — closer to the trim than page numbers sit, so it stays clear of the text block. It is drawn into the page content rather than attached as an annotation, so it prints from any reader, cannot be switched off, and is found by a text search: cite-checking against the stamped copy works. Helvetica also means the prefix has to stay within Latin letters, digits and punctuation — a character outside that set stops the run rather than being stamped.
Choosing the digit width before a production starts
The pad width is a minimum, not a ceiling. At six digits the first page is B-000001 and every label is the same length up to 999,999. Set four digits on a set that runs past 9,999 and the label simply grows — B-9999 is followed by B-10000 — and from there the labels stop sorting correctly anywhere that sorts them as text. Pick the width from the size of the whole production, not from this one file. The field takes 1 to 12 digits, and the start number can be any whole number from 0 up.
The arithmetic across a set is yours to keep. Three files of 240, 1,180 and 95 pages, stamped at six digits from 1, then 241, then 1421, close at B-001515 with no gap and no repeat. Every page of each file is stamped, separators and blanks included — there is no page range. If tracking the start numbers by hand is the annoying part, merge the set, stamp it once, and split it back afterwards.
Questions
Can I continue numbering across several files?
Yes. Each run reports the last number used, so set the next file to start from the following number and the sequence stays unbroken across a production set.
Where is the number placed?
Bottom-right by default, the usual convention, but any of the nine positions can be chosen.
What is the difference between Bates numbering and ordinary page numbers?
A page number tells you where you are in one document. A Bates number is an identifier for the page itself: a fixed prefix, a fixed width, and a sequence that carries on across every file in a production, so B-001420 means one page and no other. It also has to survive being cited, printed and re-scanned, which is why it is stamped in a corner and placed correctly on rotated pages.
Can I remove or redo a Bates number after stamping?
No. The label is drawn into the page content, not attached as something you can toggle. Keep the unstamped original and restamp from that if the numbering changes. If a stamped copy is all you have, Redact PDF can take the label out, but it rebuilds the page you box as an image and leaves a filled box where the number was.
Can I add a suffix or a confidentiality legend next to the number?
This tool exposes the prefix, the start number, the digit width and the position. For a legend on every page — a case name, or CONFIDENTIAL — run the stamped file through Add watermark afterwards and put it in a different corner.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Every tool on this site runs inside your browser, using the same engine as the Folia desktop app. Your file is read from your disk into your browser’s memory, processed there, and handed back as a download. It never crosses the internet, so there is nothing for us to store, leak or hand over.
Is there a file size limit?
We impose none. The only ceiling is your own device’s memory, which differs from one computer to another — so we read what your browser reports about this machine and show the resulting limit on the page. Light tools like merge and rotate handle far more than heavy ones like OCR, which must render every page. For anything larger, Folia for Desktop has no limit at all.
Is it really free? Do I need an account?
Yes, and no. Every tool is free and unlimited, with no watermark and no sign-up. Ads pay for the site, and your own computer does the work, which costs us nothing. Signing in with a paid Folia plan simply removes the ads.