How to add a cover page to a PDF
Reports, tenders and submissions often need a cover the original document does not have — and the original is frequently something you cannot edit, like an exported statement or a scan. The reliable route is to build the cover separately and join the two.
Drag and drop up to 20 PDFs, or choose them from your device.
Up to 50 MB per file. Files are processed in your browser.
Full options and FAQs on the Merge PDF page.
Make the cover page first
A cover page is just a one-page PDF. Write it in a word processor and export, use a letterhead template, or type the text straight into the text-to-PDF tool if all you need is a title, a date and a name.
Match the page size of the main document — A4 to A4, Letter to Letter. A mismatch shows up as a jump in page dimensions when someone scrolls, and causes scaling when the bundle is printed.
Two ways to do it
- Merge: put the cover PDF first and the document second. Nothing in the original is modified, which matters if it is a signed or issued document.
- Rebuild: extract the pages you want, add the cover, and reorder. Use this only when the source document also needs pages removed or rearranged.
- Avoid re-exporting the whole thing from a word processor — that re-encodes the original pages and can degrade scans.
Finishing touches
If the bundle needs page numbers, add them after merging so the sequence runs across the whole document. Decide whether the cover should be numbered; conventionally it is not counted.
Set the document title in the metadata to match the cover. That is the text most PDF readers show in the window title and in file previews, and leaving it as 'Untitled' undercuts an otherwise polished bundle.
Step by step
- 1Create your cover page as a one-page PDF at the same page size as the document.
- 2Add the cover first, then the main document, to the merge tool below.
- 3Confirm the order in the thumbnails before generating.
- 4Merge, then add page numbers if the bundle needs them.
- 5Set a proper document title in the metadata before sending.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I add a cover to a signed PDF?
- You can merge one in, but doing so invalidates a digital signature, because the signature covers the exact bytes of the original file. Send the cover as a separate document instead.
- What if my cover is a different page size?
- It will still merge, but the document will have mixed page sizes. Recreate the cover at the matching size before merging if the bundle will be printed.
- Can I add a back page the same way?
- Yes — add it last in the merge order instead of first. The process is identical.