To add a header and footer to a PDF means stamping one optional header line and one optional footer line onto every structural page of an existing document, then downloading the result as a new file. Header Footer PDF does this entirely in your browser, so the source file and the new file never leave your device. You point the tool at any non-empty PDF up to 25 MiB, type the label text you want at the top and bottom of every page, choose a font size between 6 and 36 points and an edge margin between 0 and 200 points, and the tool draws the new text directly into each page using the standard Helvetica font. Because the same text is drawn on every page with deterministic positioning, a footer such as Page {page} of {pages} becomes Page 1 of 12 on the first page and Page 12 of 12 on the last page without any extra scripting. The output keeps the original page count, page order, and visible content unchanged.
What "Add Header and Footer to PDF" Really Means
Header Footer PDF is a small, focused browser tool. The idea is straightforward: a header sits a short distance below the top edge of every page, and a footer sits the same distance above the bottom edge. Both lines are horizontally centered, so the line length determines how far the text extends from the center, not from a left or right margin. The tool draws this content as additional PDF page content rather than as a viewer-only overlay, so the header and footer remain visible in any PDF reader and on any printed copy.
Each text field accepts up to 120 Unicode characters after trimming. You can fill in just the header, just the footer, or both. Empty fields are skipped rather than rendered as blank lines. The text is drawn with the embedded standard Helvetica font, which means characters outside the practical Latin set — emoji, most CJK ranges, and many accented combinations — cannot be guaranteed. If the embedded font cannot encode the entered text, file creation fails visibly rather than silently substituting glyphs.
A 60-Second Example: Page {page} of {pages} in Action
The simplest reason to add a header or footer to a PDF is to label the document or to add page numbering. Header Footer PDF supports two text placeholders that handle the numbering part for you. The token {page} is replaced with the one-based current page number on each page, and {pages} is replaced with the total structural page count of the source document. Replacement is exact and case-sensitive — only the lowercase tokens {page} and {pages} are expanded, and any other brace text is left alone.
A practical footer string looks like this:
Page {page} of {pages}On the second page of a five-page source document, that line becomes Page 2 of 5. On the fifth page, it becomes Page 5 of 5. The total never changes because it is read from the source document's structure before any text is added. Numbering always starts at one. There is no starting-number offset, no Roman-numeral mode, no cover-page exclusion, and no separate odd/even behavior, which keeps the result predictable and easy to verify. You can use the same tokens in the header field as well — a common combination is a header like Confidential — Draft on every page and a footer like Page {page} of {pages} for navigation.
How to Add a Header and Footer to a PDF
The full workflow using Header Footer PDF runs in a single browser tab:
- Open the Header Footer PDF tool in your browser.
- Choose a local PDF no larger than 25 MiB. The file must be a non-empty PDF; encrypted, damaged, oversized, or incorrectly labeled files produce a visible error and are not bypassed.
- Enter header text, footer text, or both. Each field is trimmed and limited to 120 Unicode characters. To include numbering, add the tokens {page} and {pages} wherever you want them to appear.
- Set a font size between 6 and 36 whole points, and an edge margin between 0 and 200 whole points. The font size controls the height of the text; the edge margin controls how far the header sits below the top edge and how far the footer sits above the bottom edge.
- Select Add header and footer. The browser opens the source, embeds standard Helvetica once, draws the expanded text on each structural page, and prepares a new PDF.
- Download the result. The download keeps the source filename base and appends -header-footer.pdf. Changing any setting after the file is created revokes the previous download so it cannot be mistaken for the current configuration.
Font Size, Edge Margin, and the Controls You Can Change
The header line is positioned below the top edge of the page by the margin you choose plus the requested font size, and the footer line begins above the bottom edge by the same margin. Both lines are horizontally centered using the real width of the typed text, measured against the embedded standard Helvetica font. The accepted ranges for the two numeric controls are deliberately narrow so that the output stays predictable:
| Control | Accepted values | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Font size | Whole numbers from 6 to 36 points | Used for both lines; if a line is too wide, the tool reduces it in 1-point steps down to 6. |
| Edge margin | Whole numbers from 0 to 200 points | Distance from the top edge for the header and from the bottom edge for the footer. |
| Header text | Up to 120 Unicode characters after trimming | Empty fields are skipped. |
| Footer text | Up to 120 Unicode characters after trimming | Empty fields are skipped. |
| Source file size | Up to 25 MiB | Non-empty PDFs only; encrypted or damaged files surface a visible error. |
If a line would exceed the usable page width after these checks, the font size is reduced one point at a time down to a six-point floor. The text is never stretched, wrapped, or silently deleted. Very narrow pages combined with excessive margins can still leave little usable space, so inspect the result before distributing or printing it.
What Happens to Existing Page Content
Header Footer PDF draws new content inside the existing page box of every structural page. The source page boxes, page order, original page count, and existing visible content are all preserved. The header and footer are additional painted content, not a viewer overlay, so they remain visible in any PDF reader and on printed output. The placement uses the PDFPage drawText behavior of the underlying engine, which writes glyphs at a measured position inside the existing media box.
A consequence of drawing inside the existing page box is that body content already near the edge can overlap the new header or footer. The tool does not automatically create white space, detect a safe margin, move body content, read the document language, or avoid logos and crop marks. If your source has a logo in the top-right corner or an existing footer, the new lines will sit on top of those areas. For documents where you need to make room for the labels, prepare the source first with a tool such as Crop PDF to trim existing margins, or use Add Page Numbers to PDF if you only need numbering without an extra text line.
Privacy, File Limits, and Supported Files
Everything happens in the browser. Loading the source, embedding the standard Helvetica font, drawing the text, serializing the new PDF, and preparing the download run locally. The source and generated bytes are not uploaded to Lizely, which makes the workflow appropriate for documents under confidentiality, draft review, or internal review.
The hard limits to keep in mind before you start:
| Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Source is a non-empty PDF | Empty files, renamed files of the wrong type, and corrupted PDFs are rejected with a visible error. |
| Source is at most 25 MiB | Anything larger is rejected; there is no silent downscaling or partial output. |
| Source is not encrypted | Encrypted files surface a visible error rather than producing a partial result. |
| Characters encode in standard Helvetica | Latin characters work; emoji, most CJK ranges, and unsupported accented combinations fail visibly instead of silently substituting glyphs. |
Changing any setting after the file is created revokes the previous download so a stale asynchronous job cannot replace a newer configuration. If you need a multi-line header, an image, odd/even differences, custom fonts, multilingual branding, hyperlinks, or archival-conformance claims, the limitations of a centered single-line label become a problem. For those cases, use a desktop publishing application that can embed the required licensed font and place content with the precision you need.
Where Header Footer PDF Fits in Your Workflow
The tool is designed for the common, everyday cases where a clean centered label is enough. That covers confidentiality notices such as Confidential — Internal Use Only, filenames and revision labels like report-v3.pdf, draft markers, distribution tags, and page numbering written as Page {page} of {pages}. The deterministic placement and the local-only processing make it straightforward to verify a small change and produce a new file in seconds without modifying the source.
For related tasks, the rest of the local PDF toolbox covers the typical follow-ups. Add Watermark to PDF overlays an adjustable text watermark across the body of every page. Add Page Numbers to PDF stamps numbers alone in a chosen corner with a chosen format and starting number, which is the right choice when you do not want centered text. Merge PDF combines several files into one before labeling, and PDF Metadata Editor updates the document's title, author, and other properties without touching page content. Together these cover the small set of operations that most people need before sharing a PDF, all without uploading the file.