Editing & Signing
How to Add a Cover Page to a PDF
Put a title page, contents page or fax cover on the front of an existing PDF — and make it match the document behind it.
A cover page tells the reader what they are holding before they read a word of it. On a merged pack, a bundle or a submission it is the difference between a document and a stack of pages.
Add one
- 1Create the cover page — in Word, or as HTML rendered to PDF for full control of the layout.
- 2Convert it to PDF if it is not one already.
- 3Merge it in front of your document, with the cover first in the list.
- 4Add page numbers afterwards, starting from the page after the cover.
What belongs on it
- The document title, large enough to read at a glance.
- Who it is from and who it is for.
- The date, and a version marker if there will be more than one.
- A reference number, matter number or case number.
- A confidentiality notice, if the content warrants one.
- A contents list, if the pack has distinct sections.
Adding a contents page
Build it after the merge, not before. You cannot list the page each section starts on until the document exists in its final order. Merge everything, note the starting pages, create the contents page, then merge that onto the front.
That does shift every page by one, so build the contents with that offset in mind — or add page numbers after the contents page is in place and read the real numbers off the finished document.
Keeping the cover out of the numbering
A cover page is conventionally unnumbered. Set the page numbering to begin on the following page, so the reader's page 1 is the first page of actual content.
Replacing an existing cover
Remove the old page first, then merge the new one in front. Merging without removing leaves you with two covers, which is the most common version of getting this wrong.
Do it now
Merge PDF
Combine multiple PDFs into a single file. It runs in this browser tab — your file is not uploaded anywhere.
Open Merge PDFFrequently asked questions
How do I put a page at the front of a PDF?+
Merge it, with the cover file listed first. Order in the merge list is page order in the result.
Should the cover page be numbered?+
Conventionally not. Start the numbering on the following page.
How do I make a contents page?+
After merging, note where each section starts, build the page, and merge it in front. Then number the document.
What if my cover is a different size?+
It will sit at its own size in the merged file, which looks wrong and prints badly. Match the sizes first.