Split PDF Online Free

About Split PDF Online Free

Split PDF breaks one PDF into the pieces you need. You can save every page as its own file, cut the document at page numbers you type, or tick the pages you want and save them as one new PDF. It takes one file at a time, up to 150 MB, and your file stays on your device.

Which of the three modes you want

Pick the mode by what you want in your hands at the end.

Choose pages by looking at them

After you add a file, a grid of small page pictures appears. Click a page to select it, click again to take it off. When you tick a page, the tool switches to Extract specific pages for you, and the box under that option fills in with the page numbers, such as 2, 7-8. It works the other way too: type numbers in the box and the matching pages light up in the grid.

Select all and Clear selection sit under the grid. The grid shows the first 1,000 pages. For a longer file, type the page numbers instead, because the box accepts any page.

The grid earns its place because the number printed on a page can differ from its position in the file, for instance when a cover is not counted. A quick look saves you from extracting page 4 when you meant the one after the cover.

Custom ranges: what you can type

Type ranges separated by commas, like 1-3, 4-6, 8. Each range becomes its own PDF. A single page such as 8 counts as a range. While you type, one line tells you what will happen, for example "3 PDFs will be created - 7 pages (1-3, 4-6, 8)". If a number is outside the file, the line turns into an error and the split will not run.

Ranges do not have to sit side by side. 1-3, 2-4 is allowed and gives two files that share pages 2 and 3. A backwards range such as 5-3 is read as 3-5.

One range gives you a single PDF. Two or more give you a ZIP, with one PDF inside for each range.

Extract: the order is the page order

Extract specific pages puts everything you chose into one PDF. The pages come out in the order they have in the original, not in the order you clicked or typed them. Type 8, 2, 2, 5 and you get pages 2, 5 and 8, each once. If the order matters, use Merge PDF instead. Its page boxes follow exactly what you type.

Cutting a long file by its contents page

A contents page tells you where each chapter starts, and that is all you need. Take the start page of every chapter and subtract one from the next start to find where each chapter ends.

Example

A 50-page file has chapters starting on pages 1, 9, 21 and 34. The ranges are 1-8, 9-20, 21-33, 34-50. The preview line says 4 PDFs will be created, and the ZIP holds one file per chapter.

If the contents page counts a cover or roman-numbered pages differently, look at the grid before you type. The page in the grid is the page the tool uses.

What the downloads are called

The Output file name box starts with the name of your PDF. Change it if you like, and characters that file names cannot hold are removed. For a file called notes, the downloads look like this:

• Every page separate: notes_pages.zip, holding notes_page_1.pdf, notes_page_2.pdf and so on.
• One range, 3-5: notes_pages_3-5.pdf.
• Several ranges: notes_split.zip, holding notes_part1_1-3.pdf, notes_part2_4-6.pdf and so on.
• Extract: notes_extracted.pdf.

The download starts by itself. A summary shows files created, pages included and size, and a Download button gives you the same file again.

Example

A bulk shipping-label PDF has one label on every page. We tried Every page separate on a 66-page file of labels and got a ZIP of 66 PDFs, each holding one label. Any single label can now be sent to a packer or printed on its own, without printing the other 65.

Sending one page without the rest

A common reason to split is to share a single page, such as the page of a long contract that holds your signature, while the rest stays private. The pages you left out are not inside the new file. In the 66-label test above, each single-page file came to about 4.5 KB.

Look at the new file before you send it. The tool copies the page as it is, so anything printed on that page, including names and numbers, goes with it.

What the new files keep and lose

Pages are copied as they are. Text stays selectable and searchable, pages keep their size and rotation, and web links work. Form fields stay on the page they were on. A page that has "Page 7 of 66" printed on it will still say that after you pull it out, because the printed number is part of the page.

Some things do not come with the pages. Bookmarks are left behind. A link that jumps to another page inside the same file will land on the first page of the new file. The title and author of the original are not copied into the pieces.

Limits and files that get refused

Every page separate works up to 500 pages. For a longer file, use ranges or extract, which have no page cap beyond the 150 MB file limit.

A PDF with a password, or one that opens freely but has editing restrictions, is refused as soon as you add it. The message links to Unlock PDF. Pages of such files are scrambled inside, so cutting them out would give you blank or damaged pages. Remove the lock first, then split the copy without it.

A file that is not a real PDF is turned away as well, even when its name ends in .pdf.

Sideways pages

Rotation is copied along with the page. A scan that came out sideways in the original will be sideways in its piece, so fix it first. Rotate PDF turns pages, and then you can split the corrected file.

After splitting

If a piece is too big for a form, send it through Compress PDF. If you just want to remove a few pages and keep everything else together, Remove Pages from PDF is the shorter route. When each page should be a picture instead of a PDF, use PDF to JPG.

Where your file goes

The split runs in your browser tab. Your PDF is not uploaded or stored, and it is gone when you close the tab. On a shared computer, close the tab as soon as you have your files.