Add Headers/Footers

What is Add Headers/Footers?

Add Headers/Footers places text at the top or bottom of every page in a PDF. You provide the text content — a document title, date, confidential marker, page reference, or any custom string — and the tool stamps it onto each page using pdf-lib.

The tool supports both header (top of page) and footer (bottom of page) text, applied uniformly across all pages. The text is drawn using the Helvetica font at a configurable size (default: 10pt), positioned with configurable margins (default: 28pt top, 18pt bottom). The text is centered horizontally on each page.

The enhanced version of this tool (used internally) also supports left-aligned, center-aligned, and right-aligned text, page-range targeting, and separate header/footer content for odd and even pages. The basic interface exposes the center-aligned mode for simplicity.

How to Use Add Headers/Footers

1. Drop a PDF file onto the upload zone, or click to browse and select it. The tool accepts any standard PDF regardless of page count.
2. Enter the header text — this appears at the top of every page, centered horizontally, 28 points from the top edge. Leave blank to skip headers. Common uses: document titles, dates, "CONFIDENTIAL" markers, or draft version labels.
3. Enter the footer text — this appears at the bottom of every page, centered horizontally, 18 points from the bottom edge. Leave blank to skip footers. Common uses: page references, copyright notices, or department names.
4. Click Apply Headers/Footers. The tool loads the PDF, embeds the Helvetica font, iterates through every page, calculates the centered position based on the text width, and draws the text at the specified coordinates.
5. A download button appears with your file, named headers-footers.pdf. The text is permanently part of the page content — it appears in both on-screen viewing and printed output.

Why Use Add Headers/Footers?

Confidentiality notices, draft watermarks, and document dates are commonly added to PDFs after creation. Rather than re-exporting from the original application — which may not be available — this tool stamps them onto every page in seconds.

Legal and corporate teams use it to add consistent branding, page references, or compliance markers across multi-page documents before distribution. A "DRAFT" footer on every page makes the document's status immediately clear to all recipients.

Academic and research documents benefit from headers that include the paper title, author name, or submission date — information that helps reviewers identify the document when printed or viewed alongside other papers.

Privacy & Security

Your files never leave your browser. Every step — reading, stamping text, and writing the output — happens on your own device. Nothing is uploaded to Racira's servers, no copies are stored in the cloud, and no file data is transmitted at any point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use different text on different pages?

Not in a single operation. The tool applies the same header and footer text to every page. For per-page customization, you would need to process pages individually — extract the pages, apply different text to each, and recombine.

Can I include dynamic content like dates or page numbers?

Currently, the tool accepts static text only. For dynamic page numbers, use the dedicated Add Page Numbers tool. For dates, include the date string manually in the header/footer text (e.g. "August 27, 2026").

What font and size is used?

The text is rendered in Helvetica at 10pt by default. This is a standard PDF base font that renders consistently across all readers. The font is embedded in the output to ensure the text displays correctly even on systems without Helvetica installed.

Will the text overlap with existing page content?

The header is placed 28 points from the top edge and the footer 18 points from the bottom. If your PDF has content very close to the edges, there may be overlap. Review the output and use the Add Margin tool first if you need more breathing room.