I have several documents that I need to combine into a single pdf. I know that I can do this with Preview. However, it would be really nice if I could add page numbers to the resulting pdf, as well as headers and/or footers on each page.

Is this possible using pre-installed or freely available software on OS X? (Just being able to add page numbers would be great; being able to add a header as well would be perfect.)

I'm using Mountain Lion in case that makes a difference.

  • Is Adobe Reader out of question? – Ruskes Mar 24 '14 at 9:50
  • A solution involving Adobe Reader would be welcome. I've just installed it, but didn't see an obvious option to add page numbers or headers. – Nathaniel Mar 24 '14 at 10:04

I used iLovePDF's on-line tool to add the page numbers to a non-sensitive document.


I say "non-sensitive" because you have to upload the source material, and then download the result, so in theory they could do something with the original. However, I can't find anything that says iLovePDF isn't safe.

iLovePDF have several other PDF tools: https://www.ilovepdf.com/

An alternative is to download PDFPen from the App store or here:


Though I've not tried this tool, I have heard good things.

  • PDFPen is $75!! But they have a free trial. – jmh Nov 1 '17 at 17:41

Similar to what Piran said, I used ilovepdf.com for adding page number for non-sensitive document but hesitated to use it for document with sensitive data in fear of data breach.

I have found other PDF suite software too expensive just for adding page number so I decided to make my own Mac App specially for adding page numbers / text watermark, feel free to try it here : https://pdfpagenumber.com (cost $5), hope this helps!

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