Add bottom-only footers to PDFs in bulk. Works well on scanned PDFs and mixed rotations.

Left footer shows the relative file path. Right footer shows Page i/N.

Pages that appear internally flipped are skipped to avoid stamping at the visual top.

• Recursively finds PDFs starting from the current working directory
• Places a bottom-only footer inside each page’s visible area (CropBox)
• Handles /Rotate 0, 90, 180, 270
• Skips pages that look internally flipped in their content stream
• Keeps originals unchanged, writes results to PDF_with_Footer/ with _footer.pdf suffix
• Ignores PDF_with_Footer/ when scanning so it never reprocesses its own output

You can run this in any folder that contains PDFs, including nested subfolders. Example:

your-docs-root/
  contracts/
    2023/
      NDA.pdf
      SOW.pdf
  receipts/
    jan/
      store-a.pdf
      store-b.pdf
  notes.pdf
  main.py
  requirements.txt
  .gitignore
  README.md

• The script scans everything under the folder where you run it.
• Processed files are written to:

  your-docs-root/PDF_with_Footer/<original-name>_footer.pdf
  

• The input layout can be any set of folders. You do not need special names like Lesson 011.

If you want to process a different tree, either:

• Copy main.py into that folder and run it there, or
• Open a terminal in that folder and run python3 main.py from there.

• Python 3.9 or newer
• pip available in your path

# 1) Clone your repo
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/pdf-bottom-footer-stamper.git
cd pdf-bottom-footer-stamper

# 2) Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# 3) Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 1) Clone your repo
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/pdf-bottom-footer-stamper.git
cd pdf-bottom-footer-stamper

# 2) Create and activate a virtual environment
py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

# 3) Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/pdf-bottom-footer-stamper.git
cd pdf-bottom-footer-stamper

py -3 -m venv .venv
call .venv\Scripts\activate.bat

pip install -r requirements.txt

Use the same steps as macOS and Linux. Replace python3 with the correct Python command if needed.

1. Place main.py in the root folder that contains the PDFs you want to stamp.
2. Open a terminal in that folder and run:

python3 main.py

On Windows you can also use:

py -3 main.py

Output will appear in a new folder:

./PDF_with_Footer/<original-name>_footer.pdf

If you change footer settings in main.py or want to regenerate everything:

• Delete the PDF_with_Footer/ folder
• Run python3 main.py again

The script never modifies originals.

Processing: contracts/2023/NDA.pdf
Processing: receipts/jan/store-a.pdf
   ↪︎ skipped page 2 (reflected/flip matrix in content)
Processing: notes.pdf
...
Best-effort stamping complete (bottom-only).
Check the folder: /full/path/to/PDF_with_Footer

receipts/jan/store-a.pdf                                     Page 2/5

• The left side shows the PDF’s relative path from the root where you ran the script.
• The right side shows Page i/N.

Open main.py if you want to adjust:

• margin_x, margin_y for spacing from edges
• Trimming length of the left text (the relative path)
• Font family and size used by ReportLab

Re-run after changes. If you want to remove previous results, delete PDF_with_Footer/ and run again.

• Some scanned pages are stored upside down without a /Rotate flag. The script uses a best effort check on the content stream. If it detects a likely flipped page, it skips stamping that page to avoid a top footer.

• If you must stamp every page, normalize scans first, then run the stamper:

  macOS and Linux

  brew install ocrmypdf      # macOS with Homebrew
  ocrmypdf --rotate-pages --rotate-pages-threshold 12 input.pdf fixed.pdf

  Windows

  • Install OCRmyPDF from the official docs
  • Then run the same ocrmypdf command in PowerShell or CMD

• Very old PyPDF2 versions behave differently. The repo pins versions in requirements.txt that work well.

• No output files: ensure you are running from the correct folder and that there are PDFs beneath it.
• Footer at the top: those pages are likely internally flipped without rotation metadata. The script will try to detect this and skip. Pre-normalize with OCRmyPDF if you want to stamp them.
• Text too long: paths are trimmed. You can shorten deep folder names or adjust the trim logic in code.
• Permission errors on Windows: if PowerShell blocks scripts, run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned in an elevated PowerShell window.

See requirements.txt:

PyPDF2>=3.0.0
reportlab>=4.0.0

MIT

Wineel Wilson Dasari

• Email: wineel10wilson@gmail.com
• GitHub: @wineel