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Split PDF

Private: your file never leaves this device

Drop a PDF here, or click to choose one

You can also paste a file. Up to 100 MB.

Drop a PDF and every page appears as a thumbnail. Click the ones you want, or cut the document into equal chunks, or break it into one file per page. It runs inside your browser, so the original is never uploaded, and several results come back as a single ZIP instead of a pile of downloads.

About splitting a PDF

Three jobs hide behind the word split, and this page does all three. Pick pages keeps exactly the pages you choose, which is what you want when a twelve page statement has the two pages the bank actually asked for. Every N pages cuts a long document into equal pieces, useful for splitting a scanned book into chapters or getting a file under an upload limit. When it is the megabytes rather than the page count causing the trouble, compressing the PDF is usually the better tool. One file per page bursts the whole thing apart, which is how most people prepare pages for signing or for separate uploads.

You do not have to remember what is on page seven. Every page is drawn as a thumbnail as soon as the file is open, and clicking one adds it to the selection or takes it out again. The page numbers box beside the grid is the same selection written out, so you can type a range and watch it light up, or click and watch the box rewrite itself. In the grouping modes the thumbnails are banded and labelled by the file they will end up in, so you can see that pages 1 to 3 become the first file before you press anything.

Pages are copied rather than redrawn, so the output is identical in quality to the input: the same resolution, the same fonts, text still selectable. When there is more than one result file they arrive as a single ZIP, written here in the browser, with names padded so that page 2 sorts before page 10 in your file manager.

A range can be written the way you would say it: 1-3, 7, 9-12. A trailing comma is forgiven, 5- means from page five to the end, and a backwards range like 9-5 gives you those pages in reverse, which is occasionally exactly what is needed. Asking for a page that does not exist tells you how many there are rather than failing quietly.

How to split a PDF

  1. Drop a PDF on the box, click to choose one, or paste it in. Every page is drawn as a thumbnail, starting with the first.
  2. Click the pages you want. They come up ticked. Select all, Select none and Invert handle the bulk of it, and typing in the page numbers box works just as well.
  3. Or switch to Every N pages or One file per page, where the thumbnails are banded by the file each one lands in.
  4. Read the line underneath, which says exactly what you are about to get before you commit.
  5. Press Split. One result downloads as a PDF, several arrive as a ZIP.
  6. Nothing is stored. Reload and the file is gone from the page.

Common questions about splitting a PDF

Is the document I split ever sent to a server?
No. The splitting, the page previews and the ZIP are all produced by JavaScript on this page, from libraries served by this site rather than by a third party, so the tool makes no request to anyone else and your document is never sent anywhere. The renderer that draws the thumbnails is fetched from this site the first time you open a file, and is then cached for the rest of your visit. You can prove all of that for yourself instead of taking our word for it. Open the Network tab of your browser's developer tools and split a document: the requests you see are the renderer and this page's own scripts, and none of them carries your file. Once they are cached, switching your connection off and splitting another document works just the same, which is only possible because nothing is being sent.

Can I just click the pages I want?
Yes, that is the main way to use it. Every page of the file is drawn as a thumbnail and clicking one selects or deselects it. Select all, Select none and Invert are there for the bulk work. The page numbers box shows the same selection as text, so the two always agree: click the grid and the box rewrites itself, type in the box and the matching thumbnails light up.

How do I write the page numbers?
Commas between pages, hyphens for ranges: 1-3, 7, 9-12. Pages start at 1. 5- means from five to the end. A page listed twice is only included once, and a backwards range such as 9-5 gives those pages in reverse order. Clicking thumbnails writes the compact form back, so a whole run comes out as 1-3 rather than as three separate numbers.

Why a ZIP instead of separate files?
Because a browser asked to save twenty files either blocks most of them or buries you in prompts. One archive is one prompt. It is written on your device, uncompressed since PDF pages are already compressed, and every common unzip tool reads it.

Does splitting reduce quality or lose anything?
The pages themselves are copied untouched, so text, images and page size are exactly as they were. Things that belong to the document as a whole rather than to a page, such as form fields, bookmarks and attachments, are not carried into the pieces. For a plain document, a scan or a report that makes no difference.

What about a password protected PDF?
If the file only restricts printing or copying it can usually still be split. If the contents are encrypted it cannot be opened without the password, and the page says so rather than producing an empty result.

What happens with a very long document?
The thumbnails are drawn one at a time, so you can start clicking while the rest are still arriving. Past the first 120 pages only the numbers are shown, because drawing a thousand previews to look at three of them would flatten a phone. Selecting and splitting still work on every page of the file, however long it is.

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