Bates Numbering
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Definition
Section titled “Definition”Bates numbering stamps a unique, sequential identifier on every page of a document set — a prefix followed by a zero-padded number, such as SMITH-000127. The identifier becomes the page’s citation: instead of “the page about halfway through the third binder”, a reviewer says SMITH-000127, and every copy of the set carries the same numbering, so pages can be referenced across teams and across documents.
Example
Section titled “Example”A litigation bundle of 900 pages assembled from four sources. Every page receives CASE-000001 through CASE-000900, applied once across the whole set so the numbering runs continuously regardless of which source file a page came from. Any page can now be cited, and the numbering survives merging, copying, and re-binding.
In the PDFLean tools
Section titled “In the PDFLean tools”- add Bates numbering to a PDF — the dedicated tool
- add headers and footers to a PDF — the same identifier family as running header/footer text
Related reading
Section titled “Related reading”- Watermark — the other page-wide overlay, used for status rather than citation
- Imposition and N-Up — what happens to numbering when pages are imposed for print
- Archive a Year of Invoices — a scenario where page identifiers make a bundle navigable