Add page numbers to a PDF without uploading it

Numbered bundles exist so that everyone in a room is looking at the same page 47: court exhibits, tender submissions, grant applications, insurance claims, board packs. Those bundles are also dense with names, addresses, salaries and medical or financial detail, assembled at the last minute under time pressure. That combination is precisely when people paste a whole bundle into whatever tool appears first.

The recurring problem is two competing sequences. A bundle assembled from existing documents usually has printed numbers already, and the stamp runs over the top of them. Set the starting number so the stamp matches the sequence everyone will cite, or place it in a corner where nobody could confuse the two, and say in a cover note which sequence is authoritative.

Check three pages after stamping: the first, the last, and one in the middle. Cover sheets and inserted separators shift the count, and an off-by-one bundle is the sort of error that gets noticed publicly. If you also need the pages rotated, do that first, so the stamp is placed relative to the final orientation.

Verify it the same way you would any of these: open the network panel and watch while you stamp a bundle, or disconnect entirely and do it offline. A bundle is exactly the kind of file where being able to say confidently that it never left the building is worth the thirty seconds the check takes.