Stamping a number on every page is the easy half of producing documents. The hard half is what travels with them: the author field, the review comments, the earlier draft still embedded, the privileged passage nobody was supposed to see. Most Bates tools do the easy half. This does both.
Numbering and cleanup run locally in your browser. No upload required for standard checks.
A Bates number is a sequential, unique identifier stamped on every page of a document set so that any page can be cited precisely — "see DEF-004231" — in depositions, motions and correspondence. Once assigned, the numbers stay with the pages for the life of the matter.
Both sides refer to the same page by the same number, regardless of the original file name or internal pagination.
Numbers run across the whole set, so reordering or loss becomes visible immediately rather than at the hearing.
The prefix identifies who produced the set, which matters once documents from several parties are in play.
| Setting | Purpose | Common value |
|---|---|---|
| Prefix | Identifies the producing party or matter | ABC-, DEF-, PLT-001- |
| Start number | Continues numbering across a later production | 1, or next free number |
| Padding | Keeps sorting stable and looks consistent | 6 digits — 000001 |
| Placement | Avoids covering content | Bottom-right or bottom-centre margin |
| Suffix | Optional document or volume marker | -VOL3 |
Padding is the one people get wrong. Without it, page 10 sorts before page 9 the moment anything is sorted alphabetically.
A produced document has to be identified, but it also has to be clean. These are the same workflow.
Find what each file still carries: metadata, XMP, comments, embedded drafts, invisible text, dark watermarks.
Delete privileged or sensitive passages permanently — the text object itself, not a black box over it.
Apply the prefix, start number and padding across the set, in a consistent margin position.
Strip metadata and comments after numbering — numbering first would otherwise record who numbered it and when.
Deliver the set and confirm the numbers are present and the properties are empty.
Numbering before cleanup means the modification timestamp and the application that stamped it get recorded in the document properties. Clean last, and the file you hand over tells the recipient nothing about how it was prepared.
Redaction by covering is the most common defect in produced documents, and it is invisible on screen.
A black rectangle drawn over the words. The text object is still in the file: selectable, copyable, searchable, and extractable by anyone who runs a text extraction tool over the production.
The text object is deleted. There is nothing left to select or extract, and the standard verification command returns nothing.
# confirm the redacted term is really gone
pdftotext PROD-000123.pdf - | grep -i "privileged"Run that across the production before it leaves. If anything prints, the document was covered, not redacted.
A sequential unique identifier stamped on each page of a document set, usually with a prefix identifying the producing party, so any page can be cited precisely in legal proceedings. Once applied, the identifiers stay with the pages.
Yes. Set the start number to the next free value in the sequence rather than restarting at 1, which keeps the whole matter in one continuous series.
Redact first, number second, then clean metadata last. Numbering before cleanup leaves the stamping application and timestamp in the document properties.
No. Numbers are placed in the margin — bottom-right or bottom-centre by default — and the position is adjustable so nothing overlaps the body text.
Yes. Batch processing numbers and cleans a set in one pass and reports per-file results, which matters when a production runs to hundreds of files.
Standard numbering, metadata and hidden-object operations run locally in your browser. Where a feature genuinely requires server-side processing, that is stated before you confirm it.
Number, redact and clean a document set — then verify the output before it goes out.
Start a production set