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PDF Bates Numbering

Stamp sequential legal numbers across pages. Free, and runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded, stored or sent to a server.

About Bates Numbering

Bates numbering is the stamping convention used in litigation and in any discovery-style production: every page of every document gets a unique, sequential identifier, and that identifier is how the page is referred to for the rest of the matter. ABC000001 on a page means that page and no other, permanently.

The two properties that matter are that a number never repeats and never restarts. A production is usually many files, and the sequence has to run across all of them — so the result reports the number the next document should start at. Carry it into the next run and the sequence stays unbroken; start every file at 1 and the production is unusable.

The prefix identifies the producing party, the padding keeps the numbers the same width so they sort correctly as text, and the step is there for the rare production that numbers in multiples. Bottom right is the convention, because it is where a reader's thumb is not and where a scanner's feed marks usually are not either.

Where it helps

  • Zero-padded to a fixed width, so the numbers sort correctly as text in any system that receives them.
  • Reports the next number in the sequence, which is what keeps a multi-file production unbroken.
  • Prefix and suffix for the producing party and any designation.
  • Real text on the page: searchable, and readable by anything that indexes the document.
  • The documents never leave the browser — which for privileged material is the whole point.

Limits

  • One file per run. Numbering a whole production means carrying the next number forward by hand between files.
  • The stamp is drawn over the page; on a page with no margin it will overlap content.
  • No load-file or index is produced, which a formal production usually also requires.
  • It cannot tell whether a number has already been used elsewhere — uniqueness across a production is yours to manage.
  • Standard PDF fonts are Latin-1 only, so a prefix outside that repertoire is substituted.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Bates number for?

Unambiguous reference. Once a page is stamped ABC000317, every letter, deposition and brief in the matter can point at that exact page, regardless of how the documents are later split, merged or reprinted.

How do I number several files as one sequence?

Run them in order and carry the number forward: the result names the number the next file should start at. Doing it in the wrong order, or restarting each file at 1, produces duplicate identifiers — the one thing a production must not have.

Why pad with zeros?

So that the numbers sort correctly as text. Without padding, ABC10 sorts before ABC9 in every file system and most databases, which quietly scrambles the order of a production.

Is this the same as page numbering?

No. A page number describes a position within one document and restarts with each document; a Bates number identifies one page for the life of a matter and never restarts. Use the Page Numbers tool for the former.

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