Add Bates Numbering to PDF in Python

Bates numbering is widely used in legal, medical, and business workflows to assign unique, sequential identifiers to pages within a document set. Aspose.PDF for Python via .NET offers a simple and flexible API for automating this process, enabling you to apply standardized Bates numbers programmatically across any PDF.

Using the BatesNArtifact class, developers can fully customize numbering behavior—including the starting number, digit count, prefixes and suffixes, alignment, and margins. Once configured, the artifact can be applied to the Document through the add_bates_numbering method on the PageCollection or added as part of a list of PaginationArtifact objects. Aspose.PDF also supports a delegate-based configuration style, allowing for dynamic control of artifact settings at runtime.

In addition to creating Bates numbers, the API provides an easy way to remove them using delete_bates_numbering, offering complete flexibility in document processing workflows.

This article shows multiple methods for adding and removing Bates numbering in a PDF using Aspose.PDF for Python via .NET, with clear examples of artifact configuration, application, and removal.

Adding Bates Numbering Artifact

This example shows how to programmatically add Bates numbering to a PDF document using Aspose.PDF for Python via .NET. By configuring a BatesNArtifact with the desired settings and applying it to the document’s pages, you can automate the process of adding standardized identifiers to each page.

To add a Bates-numbering artifact to a Document, call the AddBatesNumbering(BatesNArtifact) extension method on the PageCollection, passing a BatesNArtifact instance as the parameter:

import sys
from os import path
import aspose.pdf as ap

def _create_bates_artifact():
    """Create a Bates numbering artifact with default settings."""
    artifact = ap.BatesNArtifact()
    artifact.start_page = 1
    artifact.end_page = 0
    artifact.subset = ap.Subset.ALL
    artifact.number_of_digits = 6
    artifact.start_number = 1
    artifact.prefix = ""
    artifact.suffix = ""
    artifact.artifact_vertical_alignment = ap.VerticalAlignment.BOTTOM
    artifact.artifact_horizontal_alignment = ap.HorizontalAlignment.RIGHT
    artifact.right_margin = 72
    artifact.left_margin = 72
    artifact.top_margin = 36
    artifact.bottom_margin = 36
    return artifact

import sys
from os import path
import aspose.pdf as ap

def add_bates_n_artifact(infile, outfile):
    """Add Bates numbering artifact to a PDF document."""
    with ap.Document(infile) as document:
        for _ in range(2):
            document.pages.add()

        bates_artifact = _create_bates_artifact()
        ap.PageCollectionExtensions.add_bates_numbering(document.pages, bates_artifact)
        document.save(outfile)

Add Bates Numbering Using Pagination Artifacts

Add Bates numbering to a PDF using the pagination artifacts collection in Aspose.PDF for Python:

  1. Load the PDF document.
  2. Insert extra pages if needed before applying numbering.
  3. Create a Bates artifact.
  4. Configure artifact properties.
  5. Add the artifact to pagination collection.
  6. Apply pagination to pages.
  7. Save the updated document.
import sys
from os import path
import aspose.pdf as ap

def add_bates_n_artifact_pagination(infile, outfile):
    """Add Bates numbering using pagination artifacts collection."""
    with ap.Document(infile) as document:
        for _ in range(2):
            document.pages.add()

        bates_artifact = _create_bates_artifact()
        ap.PageCollectionExtensions.add_pagination(document.pages, [bates_artifact])
        document.save(outfile)

Delete Bates Numbering

To remove Bates numbering from a Document, use the delete_bates_numbering() method on the PageCollection:

import sys
from os import path
import aspose.pdf as ap

def delete_bates_numbering(infile, outfile):
    """Delete Bates numbering from a PDF document."""
    with ap.Document(infile) as document:
        ap.PageCollectionExtensions.delete_bates_numbering(document.pages)
        document.save(outfile)
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