Split PDF – Extract Pages

How to extract pages from a PDF

1. Add a PDF. Click the dashed box or drag a file onto it. The tool works on one file at a time; adding another file replaces the first.
2. Type the pages you want in the page range box. Separate items with commas and use a hyphen for ranges, for example 1-3, 5, 7-9.
3. Press Split PDF.
4. Download split.pdf. It contains only the pages you listed.
5. Need another piece? Change the range and press Split PDF again. The file stays loaded, so you can cut a long document into several parts one after another. Download each result before starting the next, because the Download button always delivers the latest one.

How the page range is read

The range box is deliberately simple. Knowing its rules saves a round of trial and error:

• Numbers are positions in the file, starting at 1 – not the numbers printed on the pages. In a report whose cover and contents pages come first, the page labelled "1" may be the fifth page of the file. Your PDF viewer's "page 5 of 40" display shows the position.
• Ranges include both ends: 4-6 means pages 4, 5 and 6. Spaces are ignored.
• Pages always come out in ascending order and each page appears only once.
• Numbers beyond the last page are ignored, and ranges are cut off at the last page.
• A backwards range such as 9-7 selects nothing, and an open-ended range such as 5- is read as page 5 only. Write the real last page number instead.
• If nothing you typed matches a page in the file, the tool tells you how many pages the PDF has instead of producing an empty document.

Examples for a 12-page PDF:

What happens behind the button

The tool uses the open-source pdf-lib library in your browser. It reads your PDF into memory, creates an empty document and copies the selected pages into it in one step. Pages are copied as PDF objects, not re-drawn, so text remains selectable and images keep their resolution. Fonts and images used by the chosen pages come along automatically; a resource shared by several chosen pages is copied once. Your original file is only read, never changed, and nothing is sent to a server.

This also explains a common surprise: a single extracted page can be larger than expected, because a large embedded font or a high-resolution image used on that page is copied in full. Document-level items – bookmarks, the title and author fields, form definitions – belong to the whole file and are not carried into the new one.

Tips

• Removing pages: list the pages you want to keep. To drop page 4 of a 12-page file, type 1-3, 5-12.
• Equal parts: to cut 30 pages into three files, run 1-10, 11-20 and 21-30 in turn and rename each download.
• Reordering: extract the pieces separately, then join them in the order you want with Merge PDF.
• Email limits: splitting is often the quickest way to get under an attachment limit when compression cannot help.

Typical uses

• Sending only the relevant pages of a long contract, manual or statement.
• Pulling out the signature page to print and sign, then merging it back.
• Separating a batch scan that contains several documents.
• Sharing one chapter of a report, or dropping blank pages from a scan.

Limitations and alternatives

• One output file per run. There is no "every page as a separate file" mode and no ZIP download. For hundreds of single pages, the free command-line tool qpdf is faster: qpdf --split-pages input.pdf page.pdf writes one numbered file per page.
• No splitting by bookmarks, file size or blank pages.
• Password-protected PDFs are not supported, because pdf-lib cannot decrypt them.
• Printed page labels (i, ii, iii or "A-1") cannot be used in the range box – only positions.

Related tools

• Merge PDFJoin extracted parts or add pages from other files.
• Compress PDFRe-save the extracted pages more compactly.
• PDF to JPGTurn the pages you extracted into images.
• Add WatermarkLabel the excerpt before you share it.

Further reading: How to make a PDF small enough to email.