How-to Add Page Numbers in InDesign

The ability to automatically add page numbers to a layout is one of the many easy, convenient features InDesign has to offer. There are many reasons why you would want to automatically generate page numbers in your next project, so whether it’s a magazine, a booklet, or individually numbered items, the simple steps here can help.
 

1. Create a new InDesign document, with your margins and dimensions. Page numbers are not limited by dimension and can be applied to a document of any size.
2. Navigate to the Pages panel. If you cannot view this, you can make it visible through the Window dropdown. Click Window > Pages to display it.
3. In the Pages panel you will see the top section contains the A-Master; this is where you will be creating your page numbers. Any changes made to the A-Master will apply to all pages that contain that master layout. Below this section are the live pages in your document.
4. Double-click the A-Master to work on this page and add your page number placeholder.
5. Once in here, go to your Type tool to create a text box to house your page number.
6. Click into the text box. Click Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. This will generate a letter, but don’t worry -- this is just a placeholder for the number which will generate on your live pages. Any changes to the text you make in this box (font, size, weight, etc) will apply to all the locations that use the A-Master to generate page numbers.
7. Click back into your live page and you will see your page number generated.
8. Click to add another new page, and you will see that the sequential page number has been generated also.
9. When you export your document, the page numbers will be included as well without any additional specifications required.