Add bookmarks to a PDF
Add bookmarks (an outline) to a PDF, for free. There is no usage limit. Your PDF is processed in your browser and never uploaded. If the PDF has a table of contents page, bookmarks are created from its titles and page numbers; if not, they are created from the size and weight of the headings and their numbering. You can open PDFs of up to 200 MB per file (100 MB on phones and tablets).
You can open one PDF at a time (up to 200 MB on this device). The PDF is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
How to use
- 1
Open a PDF
Choose or drop the PDF to add bookmarks to. PDFs are never uploaded.
- 2
Check the bookmarks
Bookmarks are created automatically from the table of contents page or headings. Fix titles, levels and pages in the list, and choose the depth with "Levels".
- 3
Add bookmarks and save
Press "Add bookmarks and save" to create the PDF, then save it with the button that appears.
About PDF bookmarks
Bookmarks are the list of headings shown beside the page in PDF viewers. Clicking a heading jumps to its page, which helps with long reports, white papers and papers. This tool reads the table of contents page of the PDF and creates bookmarks from its titles and page numbers. In a PDF without a table of contents, it looks for headings by text that is larger or bolder than the body and by numbering such as "Chapter 1" or "1.2".
You can fix the created bookmarks in the list: edit titles, raise or lower levels and change pages. Use "Levels" to choose the depth, such as chapters only or down to sections. Bookmarks are added without changing the page content, so text, images, form fields and tags stay as they are. If the PDF already has bookmarks, saving replaces them with the list (the color and bold settings of the bookmarks and links to web pages or other targets that are not pages are not kept; if there are bookmarks that go somewhere other than a page, their number is shown before saving). For a PDF whose text is an image, such as a scanned PDF, first read the text with PDF OCR, and then bookmarks can be created from the headings.
Specifications of this tool
- Input
- Output
- Limits
- One file at a time. Up to 200 MB per file (100 MB on phones and tablets)
- Free, no sign-up, no app to install
- Files are never uploaded (processed in your browser)
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF sent to a server?
No. Opening the PDF, finding headings, adding bookmarks and saving all happen in the browser on your device. Statistics that help us fix bugs (the page count range, the range of how many bookmarks were added and their depth, how the bookmarks were created, error types and so on) are sent to this site's server. They do not include the content of the PDF, file names, bookmark titles or passwords. You can turn the statistics off with the "Send processing statistics" switch at the bottom of the page.
Can I add bookmarks to a scanned PDF?
Yes. However, headings cannot be found automatically in a PDF whose text is an image, so you create bookmarks with "Add bookmark" by entering titles and pages. If you first read the text with PDF OCR, bookmarks can be created automatically from the table of contents or headings.
Are the automatically created bookmarks accurate?
In many cases they are, but check them before saving. For a PDF with a table of contents page, bookmarks are created from its titles and page numbers. In three Japanese government documents we tested, about 90% of the bookmarks created from the table of contents pointed to the same page as the heading. The rest were one page off or had titles written differently in the table of contents and the body. In a PDF without a table of contents, headings are estimated from text size, weight and numbering, so figure titles or author names may be mixed in. Selecting a row in the list shows its page, so check the title and page and delete the rows you do not need.
Can I add bookmarks to a password-protected PDF or one with editing restricted?
Yes. A password-protected PDF opens once you enter its open password. If the author has restricted editing pages, you cannot add bookmarks until you enter the permissions password. This tool does not guess passwords, so if you do not know the permissions password, ask the person who created the PDF. The original PDF's encryption stays as it is in the saved PDF.
Help us improve the service
If a conversion fails, sending us the circumstances helps us track down the cause. Knowing which devices and formats fail most often, and how long processing takes, lets us revise the supported formats and fix the bugs behind them. If you don't mind, leaving this on is a real help.
What is sent
- The tool you used and the settings you chose (output format, quality, etc.)
- Your device specs (GPU, memory, core count)
- The input format with a rough size
- How many files succeeded or failed and how long it took
- The error type and details when something fails
What is never sent
- The files themselves and file names
- The text in PDFs, the text you rewrote or redacted, passwords, font names and the page ranges you enter
- IP addresses
The data goes only to this site's own server, never to a third-party service.
For the full list, including the details each tool sends, see “Processing statistics” in the privacy policy.
Details sent by this tool (counts, times, kinds and yes/no only)
In addition to “What is sent”, this tool sends the following details.
- PDF tools (all)
- The page count range, whether editing is restricted, whether a permissions password was entered, and whether the PDF is signed or encrypted.
- PDF bookmarks
- The numbers of inputs and outputs, the range of how many bookmarks were added and their depth, how the bookmarks were created (from the table of contents, from text size, the original bookmarks or by hand), whether the automatically created list was edited, whether the original bookmarks were replaced, whether the setting to show the bookmarks panel was added, and whether the original protection was reapplied. Bookmark titles are never sent.