How to Split a PDF and Extract Pages

Sometimes you need only part of a PDF: one page of a form, a chapter of a long report, or a few pages of a scan. Splitting makes new files from selected pages without changing the original. This guide explains how page ranges work, how to cut a file into several parts, and what to check before you share the result.

How splitting works

A PDF is built from separate pages, each one a description of its own text, drawings and pictures. Splitting creates a new document and copies the pages you chose into it. The original file is not changed, and you can make as many new files as you like from it. Because the pages are copied as they are, text stays searchable and pictures keep their quality. The new files are often smaller than the original, but not always: shared items such as fonts are copied into each new file that uses them.

Writing page ranges

Pages are counted from 1, the first page. You can write one page, a range, or a mix, separated by commas.

• 3 means page 3 only.
• 2-5 means pages 2, 3, 4 and 5.
• 8- means page 8 and every page after it, to the end.
• 1-3, 5, 8- means pages 1 to 3, then page 5, then page 8 to the end.

The order you write is the order in the new file. Writing 5, 1 puts page 5 first, which is a quick way to reorder, and a page may appear twice. A range must go upwards, so 5-2 is an error, and a page number larger than the page count is refused with a message that tells you how many pages the file has.

Making several files at once

The split tool on this site makes one file per line. If you enter 1-3 on the first line, 4-6 on the second and 7- on the third, you get three files: the first three pages, the next three, and the rest. This is useful for cutting a long scan into separate documents, or splitting a combined statement into months. Each file is named after the original and the pages in it, such as report-pages-1-3.pdf, so you can tell them apart.

Common uses

• Sending only the page that a form requires, instead of a whole scanned document.
• Removing a cover page or a blank page by extracting everything else, for example 2- to drop the first page.
• Separating a scanned batch of different documents.
• Saving one chapter to read on a phone.
• Removing pages that hold information you do not want to share.

Check before you share

A split file keeps only the pages you chose, but check it before sending. Open the new file and look at every page. If you were removing sensitive pages, be sure the numbers are right, since the page numbers printed on the paper may differ from the position in the file. A cover page makes the printed number 1 sit on file page 2. Also remember that metadata such as the document title or author may carry over from some files, so review the properties in your viewer if the original author's name matters.

When splitting fails

Files that are protected with a password cannot be read, so remove the password first. A damaged file, or one that only has a .pdf name, is reported as not readable. Very large files are limited in a browser: this tool accepts up to 50 MB. For a bigger file, split it into larger parts first, then split again.

Privacy

Because the work is done inside your browser, the file is not uploaded. This matters for documents such as bank statements or ID scans. The page-copying code runs on your own device, using a JavaScript library that works in any JavaScript runtime, including browsers.

Sources

• PDF (Wikipedia)
• pdf-lib: create and modify PDF documents in any JavaScript environment