Anyone who works with music PDFs eventually gets files that need fixing before they can go to print. Page numbers are missing, start in the wrong place, sit on the wrong side of the page, or disappear entirely once several files are assembled into a larger document. Running heads may be absent, inconsistent, or need to be added after the fact.
These are simple things in principle, but they often mean leaving the tool you are already using, opening a PDF editor or page-layout application, making the changes, exporting again, and checking that nothing else changed along the way.
PDF-BatchStitch 1.7.0 is available now from Notation Central, and it handles those tasks directly. The app can now number the pages of the document it assembles, add a running head or footer — including one that automatically identifies the part from which each page originated — and, as a consequence of adding those features, process a folder of PDFs individually without stitching them together at all.
This is the only PDF Batch utility updated today. PDF-BatchBooklet, PDF-BatchScale, and PDF-MusicBinder remain at 1.6.3, and PDF-Counter remains at 1.1.0.
Numbering that runs last
Tick Add page numbers and header/footer in the main window and a new Options… button opens a four-tab dialog: Page Numbers, Header / Footer, Placement, and Margins / Font / Numbering.
One important detail is when the numbering happens. It runs at the end of the pipeline — after blank sheets are inserted and annotations are flattened, immediately before the finished file is written.
That matters because the number printed on the page corresponds to its actual position in the finished document. If several files are being combined, or blank pages are being inserted along the way, numbering the source PDFs beforehand can easily leave you with numbering that no longer matches the assembled result.
There are a couple of other details that matter in real-world files. Rotated and landscape pages are normalized upright before stamping, so the number appears in the intended position and orientation. And if the # Copies column includes the same file several times, each copy continues the numbering sequence rather than repeating the same numbers.
Outside edge, not “right”
For bound or duplex-printed music, a page number usually belongs at the outside edge of the page: right on the recto, left on the verso. That is not the same thing as simply choosing “left” or “right.”
BatchStitch can handle this directly. On the Placement tab, the horizontal setting for page numbers includes Outside edge (odd right, even left), along with centered, right margin, and left margin, with top or bottom as the vertical choices.
Margins can be set independently on all four sides in inches, millimeters, or points. Changing units converts the existing values rather than simply reinterpreting them, which avoids an easy mistake.
The typography is intentionally basic: Helvetica, Times, or Courier; bold and/or italic; 4 to 96 points; black only. Those are the standard fonts built into PDF, so the feature does not require font embedding or add any new dependencies.
Front matter and first page options
Two settings sound similar but do different things.
Begin on PDF page determines where stamping begins. Anything before that page is left untouched and does not enter into the numbering sequence.
Start numbering at determines the number printed on the first stamped page.
Used together, those settings let you leave front matter alone and begin numbering with “1” on the first page of music, for example.
There is also a separate Do not number the first page option. In that case, the first page still counts; its number simply is not printed. The next page therefore reads “2.”
Prefix and suffix fields, along with an Append total page count option, allow formats such as “Page 1 of 30.”
A running head, with or without the numbers
The other major addition is running heads and footers.
On the Header / Footer tab, BatchStitch can stamp a line of text across every page. Whether that text appears at the top or bottom is determined by its placement settings.
Page numbers and running heads are independent. You can number pages without adding a header, add a header without numbering the pages, or use both.
That independence makes the feature useful well beyond simply numbering a combined PDF.
Two tokens can insert information from the source file on a page-by-page basis. [filename] inserts the full source filename, minus the .pdf extension. That remains useful when the filename itself is what you want to print.
But orchestral parts are often named for sorting and identification, not for display: 01 - Fantasy - Flute 1.pdf, 02 - Fantasy - Flute 2 Piccolo.pdf, and so forth. A running head does not need the sort-order number or the title repeated on every page. It usually needs only “Flute 1” or “Flute 2 Piccolo.”
That is what the new [part] token supplies. BatchStitch looks across the group of files being processed, removes the leading sort number and text shared by the filenames — typically the title of the work — and retains the details that distinguish one part from another. Doublings and transpositions such as “Clarinet 2, Bass Clarinet” and “Horn 1 in F” remain intact.
The title does not have to occupy one particular position in the filename. It can precede the number, follow the instrument, or sit between them. The derivation is based on the batch as a whole rather than a single rigid naming pattern.
A new Part column in the main file list shows exactly what [part] will insert for every file. In many sets, that automatic result will be all that is needed. When a filename is unusual or contains some bit of text that varies from file to file, double-click the corresponding Part cell and type the wording you want instead. Clearing an edited cell restores the automatic value, and an override stays attached to its file when the list is reordered.
This is a sensible division of labor: let the automatic pass handle 28 files in a 30-part set, then correct the two exceptions. The Part column is both a preview and an escape hatch; you never have to accept a guess that is not right for the job.
Both [filename] and [part] can be used in the header/footer text or in the page-number prefix and suffix. They are resolved separately for every page, so each page in a stitched document carries the information belonging to its own source part. They work the same way when the files are processed separately.
For a large orchestral set, that can eliminate a considerable amount of repetitive work.
The header placement options include Inside edge (odd left, even right), the counterpart to the page numbers’ outside-edge setting. That makes it possible to put page numbers toward the outside of a spread and running heads toward the binding.
Where two settings would cause text to occupy the same position, BatchStitch disables the conflicting option rather than allowing the items to print over one another.
The dialog also includes a schematic two-page spread, verso on the left and recto on the right, showing sample text based on the current settings.
Blank sheets at the end of odd-length files
Blank pages are where seemingly simple page-numbering logic can go wrong.
BatchStitch can insert blank sheets automatically to pad odd-length files for duplex printing or binding. Those inserted pages belong to the physical sequence of the document even though there is nothing printed on them.
You probably do not want a page number or running head printed on an otherwise blank page, so there are separate options to skip inserted blanks when stamping either item; the blank page still counts.
Take a 3-page file followed by a 4-page file, with padding enabled and the first page unnumbered. Page 1 has no printed number, pages 2 and 3 read “2” and “3,” page 4 is the inserted blank and remains unstamped, and the next page reads “5” — not “4.”
That’s important for more than arithmetic. Recto and verso depend on the physical page sequence. If an inserted blank stopped counting, every page after it would switch sides as far as the numbering logic was concerned, and outside-edge placement would be wrong, and we’d be back to square one.
PDF-(Don’t)-BatchStitch
Adding the ability to stamp PDFs led naturally to another use: sometimes you want BatchStitch to process the files without actually stitching them.
A new Don’t stitch (process each file separately) checkbox leaves the source PDFs separate and creates a processed version of each one, using the original filename plus a suffix. The results can go alongside the source files or into a separate output folder.
The action button even changes from Combine to Process, which is probably an overdue acknowledgement that the app can now do quite a bit besides combine PDFs.
Everything else still works on each individual file. That makes this new mode useful for several batch operations:
- Batch header/footer stamping — apply a running head to an entire folder while keeping every PDF separate.
- Batch page numbering — number every file in a folder individually, each beginning at 1.
- Batch page padding — add blank sheets where necessary so every file has an even page count for duplex printing.
- Batch annotation flattening — flatten annotations across an entire folder of PDFs. Effectively, the result is now the same as running PDF-BatchScale with the Don’t scale (flatten only) selected — the app flattens the files and creates new ones without performing the main app function (stitching or scaling).
The first of those may be the most useful new workflow in the release. With [part] in the header field, BatchStitch can derive, preview, and stamp an appropriate instrument name on every file in the folder while leaving the PDFs separate.
A stitching utility that doesn’t have to stitch. The name can survive the indignity.
Two other conveniences round things out. If your settings would result in nothing being stamped — for example, because the selected begin page is beyond the end of the document — BatchStitch warns you before processing. In per-file mode, it also reports how many files would come out unnumbered.
Settings now persist when you quit the app as well as when you run a job.
What it doesn’t do
Page numbers and running heads are black and use one of the three built-in PDF fonts. There is no color support and no access to fonts installed on your computer.
There is one header/footer text element, not separate independent header and footer fields, and it shares the page numbers’ font settings. The header/footer and page number also cannot occupy the same position. (However, you can run the batch with different settings on the processed files, if needed.)
The [part] token is an informed derivation, not an omniscient filename interpreter. If only one file is being processed, there is no batch to compare, so BatchStitch can strip a leading sort number but cannot reliably identify a shared title. Text that varies from file to file — a different date or version marker on each one, for example — cannot be recognized as common material either. The editable Part column is there for exactly those cases. If BatchStitch cannot derive a usable part name, it falls back to the full filename rather than inserting nothing.
Finally, the blank-page options recognize only blanks inserted by BatchStitch itself. A blank page already present in a source PDF is treated like any other page and will be stamped normally.
None of this is intended to replace a full PDF editor or page-layout application. If the job calls for a page number in Comic Sans, in purple, you already know where to do that. The point is to handle the ordinary production cases.
Getting the update
Existing users: You don’t need to place a new order. Log in to your Notation Central account, or enter your email at the “Retrieve Files” link at the top of the site, and you’ll find PDF-BatchStitch 1.7.0 waiting. Full documentation is here.
New users: All of the PDF Batch Utilities are in the Productivity category at Notation Central on a pay-what-you-wish basis, with a suggested contribution of $10 per app. If they’ve become part of your workflow, consider supporting their continued development, or click the Donate button on Scoring Notes.
These utilities came out of actual needs in my own shop, and they have been shaped by the people who use them most heavily — music preparers, publishers, and orchestra librarians, including many MOLA members.
PDF workflows like these will also be part of the discussion at the 2027 MOLA Tech Fair in San Francisco next April.
Enjoy! Let me know how you’re using PDF-BatchStitch in the comments.
