everyday mac tools

Bates numbering on a Mac: what it is and how to add it

· 5 min read

A Bates number is a unique identifier stamped on every page of a set of documents, usually a prefix and a zero-padded count (ABC000001, ABC000002, and so on) that keeps climbing across every file in the production. macOS has no built-in way to add them: Preview cannot, word processor headers restart with each document, and Automator’s watermark action stamps the same thing on every page. You need a PDF tool with a Bates feature, and the rest of this post is what to decide before you use one.

What a Bates number is for

When two sides exchange thousands of pages, “page 4 of the second attachment to the March email” is not a citation. A Bates number is. Every page gets one, no two pages share one, and the number never changes for the life of the matter, so a page can be referred to in a letter, a deposition, a brief and a court order and everyone finds the same sheet.

The name comes from the hand-operated stamp that did this a century ago, advancing its own counter with each press. The stamp is gone; the idea is unchanged. A Bates number is text on the page, printed or drawn into the PDF, at a fixed position, typically the bottom right, with a prefix that identifies who produced the document.

Three things distinguish it from a page number.

It continues across documents. A production of forty PDFs is one sequence. The first page of the second file is not 1; it is whatever follows the last page of the first.

It is never reused. If a page is withdrawn, its number is retired. If a page is added later, it takes the next number in the sequence, not a spot in the middle.

It identifies the producing party. The prefix (often initials or an abbreviation of the party’s name) tells the reader whose production a page came from, which matters when several parties are exchanging documents.

Why the tools you already have do not do it

Preview draws shapes and annotations and has no counter. You could type a number on every page by hand; on a document of any length that is where errors come from.

Pages, or any word processor. Headers and footers count pages within one document and restart at one in the next. You can set a starting number, but you are then managing the sequence yourself across every file, and you have to export each one to PDF afterwards, which changes the file you were asked to produce.

Automator. The Watermark PDF Documents action applies one image to every page. It cannot increment. The PDF actions in Automator are useful for combining and splitting, not for numbering.

The Print dialog. Prints what is on the page. Nothing to add a running count.

There is no Terminal command in macOS that stamps text on PDF pages either. This is one of the areas where the answer is honestly “not with what is installed”.

Decide the scheme before you stamp anything

Because the numbers cannot change once they are out, the decisions come first.

  1. Prefix. Short, capital letters, unambiguous among the parties. Agree it with the other side if there is one.
  2. Digits. Enough zero-padding that the sequence will never overflow. Six digits covers most matters; use more if you might exceed a million pages.
  3. Starting number. Usually 1 for a first production. For a later production, the next number after the last one you produced. Look it up; do not guess.
  4. Position. Bottom right is the convention. Whatever you choose, it must not cover content. Scans with narrow margins need checking page by page.
  5. Size and font. Legible when printed and when a page is photocopied a third time. Plain, not bold.
  6. Confidentiality legend. If some documents must carry “CONFIDENTIAL” or a protective order designation, decide now whether it sits beside the Bates number or elsewhere. Add a watermark, header or footer to a PDF on a Mac covers legends that are not numbers.

Write the scheme down. The document that records “ABC, six digits, bottom right, production 1 began at ABC000001 and ended at ABC004182” is the one you will need in eight months.

Order of operations

Bates numbering is late in the sequence, and getting the order wrong means redoing it.

  1. Collect and finalize the set. Nothing gets stamped that might be withdrawn.
  2. Redact. Redaction changes page content; do it before stamping so the numbers are on the final pages.
  3. Put the files in production order and, if you are producing one combined PDF, merge them then. Merge PDFs on a Mac without uploading them anywhere covers doing that in Preview.
  4. Stamp the Bates numbers.
  5. Lock or flatten if the production requires it, so the stamp cannot be moved.
  6. Record the range for each document in your production log.

Preparing a document production on a Mac puts these steps in context with everything around them.

Adding the numbers

Any PDF tool with a Bates feature will ask for the same inputs: prefix, starting number, digit count, position. Feed it the files in order and it stamps across all of them continuously.

Two things to insist on. It should write new files rather than altering the ones you collected, so the unstamped originals remain as they were received. And it should tell you the range it used, because that goes in the log.

Basalt has a Bates Numbers tool alongside its redaction, merge and split tools, and like every tool in it, the output is a new file and the original is not modified. If you run productions regularly, its Procedures tool records a repeatable sequence of steps so the order above is the same every time.

Check the result

  1. Open the first and last file. Confirm the first number is the one you intended and the last one matches your page count.
  2. Look at a page with narrow margins, and a landscape page, to confirm nothing is covered.
  3. Print one page. The number should be readable at a glance.
  4. Select the number’s text with the cursor. It should be part of the page, not a movable annotation.
  5. Record the range.

Questions

Can I use the Bates number as the filename? Many productions name each file by its first Bates number, which makes a directory listing an index. Do it after stamping, and keep a mapping from the original filename in your log.

What if I have to produce more pages later? Continue the sequence from the last number used. Never restart, never renumber what has already gone out. This is why the log matters more than the stamping.

Does Bates numbering protect the document? No. It is a label. If a document should not be altered after production, that is a separate step (a lock, a flatten, or a hash of the file recorded in the log).

Is it the same as a page number in a footer? Only in appearance. A footer page number is per document and per export; a Bates number is per production and permanent.