PDF Bates Stamping

Bates numbering is primarily used in legal and business settings to assign unique, sequential identifiers to pages in a document set. This makes it easy to reference specific pages during depositions, court proceedings, regulatory audits, and large-scale document reviews.

No. The entire process runs locally in your browser using JavaScript (pdf-lib). Your file never leaves your device and no data is sent to any server. This ensures complete privacy and confidentiality for sensitive legal documents.

Common formats include a case identifier as the prefix (e.g. "CASE-001-") and a year or document type as the suffix (e.g. "-2024"). The prefix appears before the number and the suffix after. Both are optional.

Zero-padding adds leading zeros to maintain consistent number length. With 6-digit padding, the number 1 becomes "000001", 42 becomes "000042", and so on. This ensures all stamps are the same width, which is standard in legal documents.

Currently, this tool stamps one PDF at a time. To maintain continuous numbering across multiple documents, note the last number used and set the starting number for the next document accordingly. For example, if your first 10-page document ends at 000010, set the starting number to 11 for the next document.

Courier is a monospaced font where every character has the same width. This is the standard for Bates stamps in legal practice because it ensures consistent alignment and easy readability when scanning through pages. All digits occupy equal space, making numbers easy to compare.