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How to Number Front Matter Pages with Roman Numerals
Written and fact-checked by The EditPDF AI Team
Books, theses, and formal reports traditionally number their front matter — title page, abstract, table of contents — with lowercase roman numerals, switching to arabic numbers once the main content starts.
The standard convention
- ·Title page — typically unnumbered, or counted as page "i" without displaying it
- ·Preface, table of contents, acknowledgments — numbered i, ii, iii...
- ·Main body — restarts at 1 in arabic numerals from the first chapter or section
Step-by-step
- 1Open the PDF Page Labels tool and upload your document.
- 2Set the first numbering range to lowercase roman numerals, covering the front matter pages.
- 3Add a second range starting at page 1 in arabic numerals from where the main body begins.
- 4Check the preview — the displayed numbers should match what would be printed at the bottom of each page in a formally typeset document.
- 5Download the finished PDF.
Matching a style guide
If you are following a specific formatting requirement (APA, a university thesis guide, a publisher's house style), check whether the title page itself should be counted as page i or left out of the count entirely — conventions vary.
Related PDF tools and guides
How to Add Page Labels to a PDFLearn how to control what page number a PDF viewer displays, separately from the document\'s…Why Don\'t My PDF Page Numbers Match the Viewer?A common source of confusion — the number printed on a page and the number a PDF viewer displays…Print visible numbers on pagesAdd configurable numbering to PDF pages
Core PDF tool
PDF Page Labels
The core workflow is available without an account. Browser and tool-specific limits apply.
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