Bates Numbering for PDFs

What the Bates Numbering tool does

Bates Numbering for PDFs stamps a sequential identifier on every page of a PDF — typically a prefix plus a zero-padded number, like ACME000001, ACME000002, and so on through the production. You pick the prefix (firm or case code), the starting number, how many digits to pad to, an optional suffix for exhibit tags or confidentiality designations, and where on the page the stamp lands. Click Stamp Bates numbers, download the file. Every page now has its unique cite.

The whole operation runs in your browser via pdf-lib. Privileged documents, work product, attorney-client communications, deposition transcripts, financial records — whatever's in the PDF — never leave your machine. There is no upload, no account, no watermark, no rate limit, no "Pro" tier that unlocks higher page counts. Drop the file, set the parameters, stamp.

The name comes from the Bates Manufacturing Company, which in the 1890s sold a self-incrementing rubber stamper that became standard equipment in law offices. A century later the apparatus is digital, but the convention is the same: every page of a document set gets a fixed, globally-unique identifier so that depositions, motions, and exhibits can point to exactly one page without ambiguity. "See ACME000847." That page. No other page.

Why Bates numbering exists, and why the convention matters

Litigation runs on document sets. A typical mid-sized commercial case might involve 50,000 to 200,000 pages produced by each side; large discovery productions can run into the millions. When opposing counsel takes a deposition, they need to be able to put a single page in front of the witness and say "is this your email?" When a judge reads a motion that cites the smoking-gun document, the citation needs to resolve to one page out of the million. When the case goes up on appeal and a new lawyer takes over, the cite needs to still mean the same page five years later.

Bates numbering solves all of that with a single mechanism. Every page gets stamped before the production ships. The numbers are globally unique across the producing party's entire output — page 1 of one PDF is ACME000847, page 1 of another PDF is ACME001293. They don't reset between documents, they don't restart on a new file, and the prefix ties the number to the producing party so cross-references in depositions stay unambiguous. The stamp is baked into the page content, not computed by the viewer — so the cite survives printing, scanning, re-conversion to image, and re-extraction into a new PDF.

None of that is dramatic. It's record-keeping infrastructure. But the convention is so deeply assumed that doing it wrong — inconsistent padding, restarting numbers between files, forgetting to stamp a batch — creates real problems downstream. Review platforms get confused. Deposition transcripts cite numbers that don't exist. Motion practice slows down because the judge has to track down what page the cite means. Bates done right is invisible; Bates done wrong is a procedural mess.

How is Bates numbering different from regular page numbers?

Page numbers and Bates numbers look similar at a glance — both are numbers on the bottom of a page — but they do different jobs.

For a brief, a contract, or a memo, page numbers are right. For anything that's going to be cited from in a deposition or filed as an exhibit, Bates is right. Many documents end up with both — Bates stamp on the bottom-right corner, regular page numbers in the footer. Our Add Page Numbers tool handles the second case; this one handles the first.

How to stamp Bates numbers

1. Drop or pick your PDF. Up to 100 MB per file. The page count appears so you can confirm you're stamping the right document.
2. Set the prefix. This is usually the firm or case code: ACME, SMITH, CASE2024, JONESVDOE. Keep it short — long prefixes push the stamp into page content.
3. Set the starting number. Usually 1 for the first PDF in a production. For subsequent files, it's whatever number comes after the last page of the previous file. If document A ran from ACME000001 to ACME000847, document B starts at 848.
4. Set the padding digits. 6 is the legal-discovery convention — handles up to a million pages and reads cleanly (ACME000847). 4 is fine for small productions; 7 or 8 for unusually large ones. Once you pick padding for a production, don't change it mid-stream — the cites will look inconsistent and review tools will treat ACME0001 and ACME00001 as different documents.
5. Optionally add a suffix. The suffix is appended after the number, so a prefix of ACME, number 47 with 6-digit padding, and a suffix of EXHIBIT A produces ACME000047 EXHIBIT A. Common uses: exhibit tags, confidentiality designations ( CONFIDENTIAL, ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY), or version markers.
6. Pick the position. Bottom-right is the U.S. legal default — out of the way of headers, far from the binding edge, where reviewers expect to find it. Bottom-center is second most common. The tool offers all six standard positions because the right choice depends on what's already on your pages.
7. Set the font size (8-14 pt; 10 pt is a sensible default). The stamp uses black Helvetica.
8. Click Stamp Bates numbers. Download. The output is your original filename with -bates appended.

A worked example: stamping a deposition exhibit set

You're a paralegal at Marshall & Klein, working on Smith v. Globex Industries. The case prefix the team agreed on is SMITH. Your team has produced two batches so far: the first ran SMITH000001 through SMITH002491. Now you have a 312-page PDF that's the next production — internal Globex emails — and the partner wants it stamped before it goes out at 5 p.m.

You drop globex-emails-batch-3.pdf in. Page count shows 312, which matches the partner's instruction. You set prefix to SMITH, starting number to 2492 (the next number after the previous batch ended), padding to 6 digits, no suffix, position bottom-right, font size 10pt.

You click Stamp Bates numbers. About four seconds later — pdf-lib is fast — the download button appears. The output, globex-emails-batch-3-bates.pdf, has SMITH002492 in the bottom-right corner of page 1, SMITH002493 on page 2, all the way through SMITH002803 on page 312.

You spot-check the first page, the last page, and a couple in the middle. Numbers are sequential, padding is consistent, position is clear of the email letterhead. You write down "SMITH002492–SMITH002803, 312 pages" for the production log, save the stamped file to the case folder, hand it off for the privilege review. Total time from receiving the PDF to stamped output: under two minutes, and the file never left your laptop.

For the next batch you'll set the starting number to 2804. The numbering chain continues across the production set, even though each individual stamping pass is a separate run of the tool.

How many digits to pad to

The padding decision is small but it sets up downstream consistency, so worth thinking about once at the start of a production.

The rule of thumb: pick one digit of headroom above your expected production size. If you think the case will run 50,000 pages, 6-digit padding gives you room to 999,999 without needing to re-pad. If you guess wrong and the production explodes, you'll either need to renumber (painful and creates cite-stability problems) or accept inconsistent padding (also painful, and review tools complain).

Six digits is the safe default for almost all U.S. legal work and is what most review platforms expect.

Where on the page should the Bates number go?

Bottom-right is the strong U.S. default. There are concrete reasons.

• It stays clear of letterhead, which usually occupies the top of business correspondence.
• It's far enough from the left edge that binding (physical or digital) doesn't obscure it.
• It's where reviewers, opposing counsel, and judges have been trained to look — the convention reinforces itself.
• It's far from page-content density (most business docs are denser at the top).

Bottom-center is the second most common, especially for forms and government filings where pages are centered. Top-right gets used in some jurisdictions and for some document types (deposition transcripts in particular). Avoid corners that overlap header content; this tool offers all six positions because the right answer is what's already on your pages.

For mixed productions where some documents have busy bottom-right corners (signatures, addresses) and others don't, pick whichever position works for the majority and don't worry about per-file optimization. Consistency across the production matters more than per-page elegance.

The privacy story, for legal teams specifically

This part matters more for legal documents than for most other PDF work. Discovery productions, deposition exhibits, and pre-filing drafts are some of the most sensitive material lawyers handle — work product, attorney-client privileged communications, sealed records, trade secrets, the contents of the case file before opposing counsel sees it. The rules of professional conduct require lawyers to take reasonable steps to protect that material.

Most browser-based PDF tools — iLovePDF, SmallPDF, PDFescape, and the rest — work by uploading your file to their server, processing it there, and returning a download link. Their privacy policies generally promise to delete the file within an hour or two. For a recipe scan that's fine. For a discovery PDF that contains your client's privileged communications, the threat model is different: you've placed those documents on a server in some jurisdiction (often not the U.S.), under some company's control, even briefly. If that company is compelled to produce its server contents — by a subpoena, a search warrant, a foreign government request — your client's privilege may already be gone.

The professional-grade alternative for legal e-discovery is the desktop or hosted enterprise suite: Relativity, Everlaw, Logikcull, Reveal, DISCO. Those are real products, built for serious productions, with the audit trails and access controls that large cases require. They cost real money (per-gigabyte hosting fees, per-user licenses) and are the right answer for matters that justify the spend.

What this tool does is a much smaller job — sequential Bates stamping on a PDF — but does it without the upload. The PDF bytes are read into your browser's memory, pdf-lib draws the stamp text on each page, and the result downloads as a blob. Open the network tab during stamping: zero outbound requests. There is no server in the path. Not because we promise there isn't, but because there architecturally isn't one. A solo practitioner, an in-house counsel, or a paralegal doing a small Bates job can do it on their own machine without making the bytes anyone else's problem.

For productions where the volume justifies Relativity or Everlaw, use those. For the smaller numbering jobs that don't justify enterprise tooling, this is built so the work stays where it belongs.

Suffixes: exhibit tags and confidentiality designations

The optional suffix slot exists because Bates numbers in real practice often carry one more piece of information beyond the unique cite. Common patterns.

• Exhibit tags. When a Bates-stamped page is also being submitted as a deposition exhibit, the suffix can read EXHIBIT 12 or EX. A. The exhibit tag stays paired with the Bates cite, so the page reads ACME000847 EXHIBIT 12 — one stamp, two pieces of context.
• Confidentiality designations. Productions in matters with a protective order frequently require pages to be marked with their tier: CONFIDENTIAL, ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY, HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL. The designation goes after the Bates number so opposing counsel sees both at a glance.
• Version markers. For internal drafts being routed for review, a suffix of DRAFT or v3 can keep version history visible on the page even after Bates stamping locks the cite.
• Producing-party identifiers. In multi-party litigation where each side stamps its own production, the suffix can identify the source: (PROD-1), (3RD-PARTY).

Keep the suffix short. A 30-character suffix on a 6-digit-padded number is going to push past the right margin on most pages. If you need a long designation, consider running the document through PDF Watermark separately for the wider mark and reserving the Bates stamp for the cite itself.

Related PDF tools

• Add Page Numbers to PDF — for documents that need conventional page numbering alongside (or instead of) Bates stamps.
• PDF Watermark — for adding wider designations like DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, or firm logos. Often used in combination with Bates stamping.
• Add Header & Footer to PDF — when the matter calls for a consistent header (case caption) and footer across the production.
• PDF Merger — combine multiple PDFs into a single production file before stamping; ensures one continuous Bates range across the whole batch.
• Redact PDF — for redacting privileged or confidential content before producing. Combined with our compression tool, supports legal-grade redaction.
• Sign PDF — for declarations, certificates of service, and other production documents that need a signature.

About Microapp

Microapp is a place on the internet where you can find every tool you need — small, focused tools that open in a tab, do one job, and let you leave. Bates Numbering is one of about 140 tools in the catalog. The membership model is Costco-shaped: members get clean pages and AI at compute cost; non-members get the same tools with ads on the page. 10% of every dollar Microapp earns goes to charity, off the top, audited and published quarterly. For legal work specifically: the tools are picked, the privacy story is the architecture (no upload, no server), and the brand promise is the opposite of Big Software's "subscribe forever" model — open the tool, do the job, leave.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bates numbering?

Bates numbering (also called Bates stamping) is sequential numbering applied to every page of a document set so that any single page can be cited unambiguously — "see ACME000847" points to exactly one page. The format is typically a prefix (firm name, case code, or party identifier) followed by a zero-padded number, e.g. ACME000001 through ACME009999. The name comes from the Bates Manufacturing Company, which sold a self-incrementing mechanical stamper in the late 1800s; the digital version is the same idea minus the rubber.

Who uses Bates numbering?

Lawyers, paralegals, forensic accountants, and corporate compliance teams. The primary use is legal discovery: when one party produces documents to another, every page is Bates-stamped so depositions, motions, and exhibits can cite specific pages. It's also used for internal investigations, audits, regulatory filings, and any context where a fixed document set needs a stable per-page identifier.

How is Bates numbering different from regular page numbers?

Page numbers reset for each document and read like "1 of 10" — they tell you where you are inside one file. Bates numbers are globally unique across an entire production: page 1 of one PDF might be ACME000847 while page 1 of another is ACME001293. They don't reset, they don't restart, and they include a prefix that ties them to the producing party. Bates numbers are also stamped into the page content (becoming part of the rendered PDF) rather than computed by the viewer — so the cite survives printing, scanning, and re-conversion.

How many digits should I pad to?

Match the maximum size of your production with one digit of headroom. For a few hundred pages, 4 digits (ACME0001) is fine. For typical mid-sized litigation, 6 digits (ACME000001) is the convention and handles up to a million pages. For very large productions, 7 or 8 digits. Once you start numbering, don't change padding mid-production — the cites will look inconsistent and downstream review tools will treat ACME0001 and ACME00001 as different documents.

Where on the page should the Bates number go?

Bottom-right is the strong default in U.S. legal practice — it's where reviewers and judges expect to find the cite, it stays out of the way of letterhead and signatures, and it's far enough from the binding edge to survive scanning. Bottom-center is the second most common. Top-right is used in some jurisdictions and for certain document types (deposition transcripts). Avoid corners that overlap header content; this tool gives you all six positions because the right answer depends on what's already on your pages.

Can I use a suffix for exhibit numbering or confidentiality markings?

Yes. The suffix is appended after the number, so a prefix of ACME, a number of 47 with 6-digit padding, and a suffix of EXHIBIT A produces ACME000047 EXHIBIT A. Common suffix uses: exhibit tags ( EX. 12), confidentiality designations ( CONFIDENTIAL, ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY), or version markers ( DRAFT). Keep it short — long suffixes push the stamp into the page content.

Does this work for password-protected PDFs?

No — pdf-lib refuses to open encrypted PDFs. Unlock the PDF first using a desktop reader (Adobe Acrobat: File → Properties → Security → Save As an unprotected copy; macOS Preview: File → Export → uncheck Encrypt), then stamp.

Is my PDF really not uploaded?

Correct. The stamping runs entirely in your browser via pdf-lib. Your PDF bytes go from your file system to the browser's memory to the output — never to a server. Check your browser's network tab during stamping: zero outbound requests. This matters for privileged or work-product material, which is why we built it client-side.

What happens if my PDF already has Bates numbers on it?

The tool draws a new stamp on top of whatever is there — it doesn't remove existing numbers. If the prior stamp is in the same position, you'll get overlapping text; pick a different position, or remove the prior numbering first by re-exporting from the source. For productions you're receiving (not generating), you usually want to preserve the producing party's Bates numbers, not overwrite them.