Split PDF

What Split PDF is for

Often you need only part of a document. A college asks for just the mark sheet page from a 12 page result file, an insurer wants only the discharge summary out of a long hospital bill, or a scanned bundle needs to be broken back into the separate letters it came from. This tool opens one PDF, tells you how many pages it has, and makes a new PDF that contains only the pages you list. It can also save every page as its own PDF in one go.

How to use it

1. Drop a PDF on the box or tap it to choose one. The page count appears next to the file name.
2. Leave Extract pages into one PDF selected and type the pages you want in the box, or switch to Every page as a separate PDF.
3. Read the line under the box. It confirms exactly which pages you picked and how many there are, or explains what is wrong with what you typed.
4. Press Split PDF to download the result.

Writing page ranges

Separate items with commas. A single number is one page, and two numbers joined by a hyphen are every page from the first to the second. A range that ends in a hyphen runs to the last page, and one that starts with a hyphen begins at page 1. Spaces do not matter. So for a 12 page file:

• 1-3, 5, 8- gives pages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 to 12, which is 9 pages.
• -4 gives the first four pages.
• 12, 1-11 moves the last page to the front, because pages come out in the order you type them.
• 2, 2 gives page 2 twice, which is handy when an office wants two copies of the same certificate in one file.

A range that runs backwards, such as 9-4, or a page past the end of the file is pointed out before anything is made, with a suggestion for how to fix it.

Every page as its own file

In this mode a 20 page PDF becomes 20 files named like report-page-01.pdf to report-page-20.pdf, numbered with leading zeros so they sort correctly in a folder. They download one after another with a short pause between each. Your browser may ask once whether this site can download several files; allow it, or the later pages will be blocked. On a phone, where every download can bring up a prompt, the range mode is usually quicker for long files. Press Start over at any point to stop the downloads.

Quality and file size

Pages are copied, not redrawn, so text stays sharp, selectable and searchable, and scanned images keep their resolution. Each output file has to carry the fonts and images its pages use. That means that three pages out of a 100 page report are usually far smaller than the original, but the separate files from every-page mode can add up to more than the original file, because shared fonts are stored again in each one.

Locked files and privacy

A password protected PDF cannot be opened here; open it with its password in a PDF reader and save a copy without one first, if you are allowed to. The whole job runs in this browser tab using the open source pdf-lib library, so your PDF is never uploaded to Ur Next Door or anywhere else. To join files instead, use Merge PDF.