Bates number a document production

A production is handed over as a set and referred to afterwards as a range, so the numbering has to run through every file in one pass. This numbers the whole set and writes the index beside it.

• One pass across every file, so the numbering is continuous.
• Bookmarks, links, annotations and form fields all survive.
• A CSV index of which file holds which range, written for you.

Numbering is a set operation

Numbering one document at a time and hoping the counters line up is how two pages end up sharing a number, and a production with a duplicated number is a production that cannot be cited. So the whole set goes in at once and the counter runs straight through it, in the order you put the files in.

A label that outgrows its padding keeps counting rather than wrapping. Running from six digits into seven is untidy; two pages both stamped with the last available number is unrecoverable.

What the usual approach destroys

Most stampers push every page through a fresh drawing context, which produces a numbered document and loses the bookmarks, the internal links, the annotations and the form fields on the way. On an exhibit bundle that means the index stops working the moment it is numbered, which is the one thing the index was for.

Here the number is drawn onto the existing page in place, so everything else in the file is still there afterwards. Pages that already carry text where the stamp will land are listed before anything runs, because a number printed over an exhibit's own footer is a number somebody will misread.

Everything happens on this device, which is worth saying about a production specifically. A set of documents going out under an order is the last set anybody should be uploading to a free online stamper, and the reason people do it anyway is that the alternative usually costs money and takes a morning. It does not have to.

Can I set a prefix and a starting number?

Yes, along with the padding, the corner it sits in and the type size.

What is the CSV for?

It records which file covers which range. That mapping cannot be reconstructed later without opening the whole set again.

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