Add a cover page to a PDF, from a PDF or a picture

The cover is a PDF: merge it in front

1. Drop cover.pdf and report.pdf on Merge PDF above. You can drop them together or one after the other.
2. Check the order in the file list: the cover must be first. If it is not, click Up on it.
3. Turn Bookmark per file off, so the report’s own bookmarks stay at the top of the outline as they were. Left on, the outline gets 2 entries, “cover” and “report”, with the report’s bookmarks folded under “report”.
4. Click Merge and download cover-merged.pdf. The name comes from the first file; rename it as you like.

The pages are copied as they were, with their fonts and pictures: nothing is redrawn or compressed, and the result is about the size of the 2 files together.

A cover from Word, Pages or a design app is the same job: export it as PDF there (in Word, File, then Export), then merge.

The cover is a picture: make it a page first

A cover designed as a JPG or PNG needs 1 step more. Make it the same paper size as the document, or it will stick out.

1. Drop the picture on JPG to PDF. It also takes PNG, HEIC, WebP and other formats.
2. Set Paper to the document’s size (A4 or US Letter; not sure? the merged file shows it later), Orientation to Auto, Margin to 0.
3. Under Fit, choose Fit to show the whole picture with white edges where its shape differs from the paper, or Fill to cover the page edge to edge and trim what overflows.
4. Click Make the PDF, download cover.pdf, and merge it in front as above.

A JPEG photo goes into the PDF unchanged, so a designed cover keeps its quality. Pictures to PDF explains what happens to each format.

A divider page anywhere, not just the front

The same tools put a page between chapters. Say the 48-page report has chapters starting on pages 13 and 31, and you want a divider before each.

1. Merge report.pdf with dividers.pdf (2 pages), report first. The dividers are now pages 49 and 50.
2. Drop the merged file on Extract pages and type the order you want:

1-12, 49, 13-30, 50, 31-48

3. Click Extract and download. Extract pages builds the file in exactly the order typed.

To add a cover and dividers at once, put all of them in 1 merge and 1 list. For a blank divider you write on, add a blank page instead.

What changes when a page goes in front

For most covers nothing in this table needs action. If the title in the file’s properties matters (it shows in a browser tab and in search results), add the cover in the source document, in Word or wherever the report was made, and export the whole thing again.

Page numbers after the cover

Printed numbers are part of each page, so they stay as they were. A report numbered from 1 still starts at 1 on its first page, which is now page 2 of the file. In a printed report that is what readers expect: the cover has no number.

If the document has no numbers yet, add them after the cover is in: open Page numbers, turn on Cover page (it leaves page 1 without a number, header or footer), and keep First number at 1. The report’s first page gets 1, and with the format Page 1 of 12 the total counts only the numbered pages. Do not add numbers to a document that already has them; the new ones go on top of the old. Page numbers that skip the first page has more on covers and numbering.

The honest part: sizes that do not match

Merge keeps every page at its own size. A cover exported at US Letter (216 by 279 mm) in front of an A4 report (210 by 297 mm) is a little wider and shorter than the pages behind it. On screen you see a step at the first page; on paper, a printer fits each page to the sheet in its own way.

To match, put the cover on the document’s paper before merging: drop it on Resize PDF, choose the Paper (A4) and keep Margin at 0. The cover is scaled to fit and centred, never stretched, so a Letter cover on A4 gets a white strip of about 13 mm at the top and bottom. If that strip bothers you, export the cover at A4 from the design app in the first place; that is the only seamless route. More on mixed sizes is in Merge PDFs with different page sizes.