How to Add Page Labels to a PDF
Page labels are the logical names PDF viewers show for each page — Roman numerals for front matter (i, ii, iii), Arabic numbers for the body (1, 2, 3), letters, or a custom prefix such as “A-1”. The SwiftPDFLab Editor lets you define these label ranges so navigation, printing and referencing match your document’s real structure. Everything runs client-side in your browser, so your file is never uploaded.
Page Labels vs. Printed Page Numbers
A page label is metadata attached to a page; it is what a PDF reader displays in its page-navigation box and what “Go to page” uses. It is separate from a visible page number stamped onto the page. Use labels when the on-screen page identity should differ from the physical sheet — common in theses, reports, books and legal filings.
Step 1: Open Your PDF
Go to editor.swiftpdflab.com and open the PDF you want to label.
Step 2: Open the Labels Tool
Select Flatten & Labels from the toolbar and switch to the page-label options. Here you can start a new label range at any page.
Step 3: Define the Label Range
Choose the page where the range begins, pick a numbering style (Arabic, lower/upper Roman, lower/upper letters), and optionally add a prefix (for example “A-”) and a start value. Add additional ranges to switch styles mid-document — for instance Roman numerals for the preface, then Arabic from page 1 of the main text.
Step 4: Review and Download
Scrub through the page-navigation control to confirm the labels read correctly, then click Download to save the labelled PDF.
Pro Tip
When a document has unnumbered cover pages, start the first real label range at the title or contents page and set its start value to 1. This keeps “page 1” meaningful for readers and for print ranges, without a label showing on the cover.