How to Add Page Numbers in a PDF

Page numbers are sequential numbers assigned to each individual page within a PDF document. Page numbers are one of the most important components in a document for navigation. They help readers locate specific pages and determine what page they are reading from. Additionally, page numbers enable easy citation and referencing of content within the document. With IronPDF, adding page numbers to your PDF is a simple process.

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First Step:

How to Add Page Numbers in a PDF

Download the C# PDF Library from NuGet
Load an existing PDF document or render a new one
Use placeholder strings {page} and {total-pages} in the Header and Footer to insert page numbers
Apply page numbers to specific pages or sections
Review the resulting PDF document

Add Page Numbers Example

Using placeholder strings {page} and {total-pages} with either the TextHeaderFooter or the HtmlHeaderFooter class, you can add the current page number and the total number of pages.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-basic.cs

using IronPdf;

// Create text header
TextHeaderFooter textHeader = new TextHeaderFooter()
{
    CenterText = "{page} of {total-pages}"
};

// Create html footer
HtmlHeaderFooter htmlFooter = new HtmlHeaderFooter()
{
    HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"
};

// Render a new PDF
ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World!</h1>");

// Add header and footer
pdf.AddTextHeaders(textHeader);
pdf.AddHtmlFooters(htmlFooter);

pdf.SaveAs("pdfWithPageNumber.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

' Create text header
Private textHeader As New TextHeaderFooter() With {.CenterText = "{page} of {total-pages}"}

' Create html footer
Private htmlFooter As New HtmlHeaderFooter() With {.HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"}

' Render a new PDF
Private renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()
Private pdf As PdfDocument = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World!</h1>")

' Add header and footer
pdf.AddTextHeaders(textHeader)
pdf.AddHtmlFooters(htmlFooter)

pdf.SaveAs("pdfWithPageNumber.pdf")

VB C#

The output PDF from the code above is shown below:

You can also directly add the headers and footers with the page number placeholder strings into the rendering options of the ChromePdfRenderer.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-chromerenderer.cs

using IronPdf;

// Add header and footer to rendering options
ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
renderer.RenderingOptions.TextHeader = new TextHeaderFooter()
{
    CenterText = "{page} of {total-pages}"
};
renderer.RenderingOptions.HtmlFooter = new HtmlHeaderFooter()
{
    HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"
};

string html = @"
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
<div style='page-break-after: always;'/>
    <h1>2nd Page!</h1>";

// Render new PDF
PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);

pdf.SaveAs("applyPageNumberWithRenderingOptions.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

' Add header and footer to rendering options
Private renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()
renderer.RenderingOptions.TextHeader = New TextHeaderFooter() With {.CenterText = "{page} of {total-pages}"}
renderer.RenderingOptions.HtmlFooter = New HtmlHeaderFooter() With {.HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"}

Dim html As String = "
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
<div style='page-break-after: always;'/>
    <h1>2nd Page!</h1>"

' Render new PDF
Dim pdf As PdfDocument = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html)

pdf.SaveAs("applyPageNumberWithRenderingOptions.pdf")

VB C#

Add Page Numbers to Specific Pages Example

With IronPDF, you can decide where to add page numbers. You can make them start on a certain page or on certain groups of pages such as on the even-indexed pages.

Let's prepare our PDF document to apply the page numbers.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-preparation.cs

using IronPdf;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;

string multi_page_html = @"
    <p>This is the 1st Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 2nd Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 3rd Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 4th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 5th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 6th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 7th Page</p>";

// Create header
HtmlHeaderFooter header = new HtmlHeaderFooter()
{
    HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"
};

// Render PDF
ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(multi_page_html);

// Create a Page Range 0..6
var allPageIndices = Enumerable.Range(0, pdf.PageCount);

Imports IronPdf
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Collections.Generic

Private multi_page_html As String = "
    <p>This is the 1st Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 2nd Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 3rd Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 4th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 5th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 6th Page</p>
<div style = 'page-break-after: always;' ></div>
    <p>This is the 7th Page</p>"

' Create header
Private header As New HtmlHeaderFooter() With {.HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}<i></center>"}

' Render PDF
Private renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()
Private pdf As PdfDocument = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(multi_page_html)

' Create a Page Range 0..6
Private allPageIndices = Enumerable.Range(0, pdf.PageCount)

VB C#

Even Pages Indexes

Building upon the previous code example, the following code will apply page numbers exclusively to even page indexes. Since we are filtering for even page indexes, the resulting PDF will apply on only odd page numbers. Page indexes begin at zero, while page numbers start from one.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-even-pages.cs

// Get even page indexes (resulting in odd page numbers)
var evenPageIndices = allPageIndices.Where(i => i % 2 == 0);

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, evenPageIndices);
pdf.SaveAs("EvenPages.pdf");

' Get even page indexes (resulting in odd page numbers)
Dim evenPageIndices = allPageIndices.Where(Function(i) i Mod 2 = 0)

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, evenPageIndices)
pdf.SaveAs("EvenPages.pdf")

VB C#

Odd Pages Indexes

Add page numbers specifically to pages with odd index numbers.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-odd-pages.cs

// Get odd page indexes (resulting in even page numbers)
var oddPageIndexes = allPageIndices.Where(i => i % 2 != 0);

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, oddPageIndexes);
pdf.SaveAs("OddPages.pdf");

' Get odd page indexes (resulting in even page numbers)
Dim oddPageIndexes = allPageIndices.Where(Function(i) i Mod 2 <> 0)

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, oddPageIndexes)
pdf.SaveAs("OddPages.pdf")

VB C#

Last Page Only

Add a page number to the last page only.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-last-page-only.cs

// Last page only
var lastPageIndex = new List<int>() { pdf.PageCount - 1 };

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, lastPageIndex);
pdf.SaveAs("LastPageOnly.pdf");

' Last page only
Dim lastPageIndex = New List(Of Integer)() From {pdf.PageCount - 1}

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, lastPageIndex)
pdf.SaveAs("LastPageOnly.pdf")

VB C#

First Page Only

Add a page number to the First page only.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-first-page-only.cs

// First page only
var firstPageIndex = new List<int>() { 0 };

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, firstPageIndex);
pdf.SaveAs("FirstPageOnly.pdf");

' First page only
Dim firstPageIndex = New List(Of Integer)() From {0}

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, firstPageIndex)
pdf.SaveAs("FirstPageOnly.pdf")

VB C#

Skip First Page

Skip the first page when applying the header.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-skip-first-page.cs

// Skip the first page
var skipFirstPage = allPageIndices.Skip(1);

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, skipFirstPage);
pdf.SaveAs("SkipFirstPage.pdf");

' Skip the first page
Dim skipFirstPage = allPageIndices.Skip(1)

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 1, skipFirstPage)
pdf.SaveAs("SkipFirstPage.pdf")

VB C#

Skip First Page And Don't Count it

Skip the first page and begin numbering from the second page, considering it as page 1.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/page-numbers-skip-first-page-and-dont-count-it.cs

// Skip the first page and start numbering the second page as page 1
var skipFirstPageAndDontCountIt = allPageIndices.Skip(1);

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 0, skipFirstPageAndDontCountIt);
pdf.SaveAs("SkipFirstPageAndDontCountIt.pdf");

' Skip the first page and start numbering the second page as page 1
Dim skipFirstPageAndDontCountIt = allPageIndices.Skip(1)

pdf.AddHtmlHeaders(header, 0, skipFirstPageAndDontCountIt)
pdf.SaveAs("SkipFirstPageAndDontCountIt.pdf")

VB C#

To explore all metadata options, please visit the IronPDF Headers and Footers Guide.