Your PDF is locked in, the recipient list is finalised, and someone in legal asks: "Can you add the document reference and date to every page?"
Footers are how professional documents identify themselves. Reference number, date, author, classification — they belong at the bottom of every page, not just the cover.
Decide what belongs in the footer
A footer doesn't have to be one thing. Common layout: document reference on the left, date in the middle, page number on the right.
Keep it to one line. Two-line footers steal vertical space and start to look like the body content. If you've got more to say, move it to a back cover or a metadata page.
Stamp it onto the existing PDF
Open the PDF in Flint's editor and add a footer text block. Position it 1-1.5 cm from the bottom edge. Use a smaller font than the body — 8 or 9pt is usually right.
If you want different footers on different sections (e.g. an appendix labelled "Appendix A" instead of the main reference), apply two passes: one for pages 1-30, one for pages 31-end.
Match the existing typography
A footer in a wildly different font screams "added later". Try to match the body typeface — Helvetica, Inter, Times, whatever the document uses. Grey text (around #555) reads as quietly secondary, which is what you want.
If the document already has page numbers, integrate them into the footer rather than running two separate stamps.
Save and confirm
Download the file and open it in a reader. Check pages 1, a middle page, and the last page. Watch out for footers landing on top of footnotes or chart captions — that's the main thing that catches people out.
If the footer collides with existing content, either crop the page margins slightly or shift the footer up a few millimetres.
FAQ
Can I add a different footer to odd and even pages?
Yes — apply one footer to odd-numbered pages and another to even. Useful for booklet-style layouts where you want the document title on the left page and the section title on the right.
What's the right footer font size?
8-9pt for A4/Letter. 10pt for older readers or printed materials. Anything bigger than 11pt starts to compete with the body text.
Can footers include the file's last-modified date?
You can include a date string at the time of stamping. PDFs don't auto-update dates — once stamped, the footer date is fixed.
How do I make the footer the same on every page?
Apply the footer to the full page range in the editor. The text and position are repeated identically on every page in one pass.
Footers carry the document's identity. Open the file in Flint's editor, stamp the reference, date, and page number, and you've got a document that knows what it is on every page.