Open Split PDF, drop the file, and pick a mode. By range takes a line like 1-3,5,8-10 and gives you one new PDF containing exactly those pages, in that order. Every page gives you a zip with one PDF per page.
Pages are copied rather than re-rendered, so nothing about the output is softer, larger or differently coloured than the original.
A forty page report where the team needs pages twelve to twenty. A signed contract where only the execution pages matter. A scanned batch of six invoices that has to become six files because the accounting system accepts one document per claim. Splitting is the other half of merging, and it comes up just as often.
Two modes, and when each one is right
Almost every splitting task is one of two shapes. Split PDF also cuts every N pages, at bookmarks, or wherever you click between two thumbnails, and it has separate Extract and Delete modes, but by range and every page cover most jobs.
You know which pages you want
- Produces a single PDF containing your selection
- Accepts non-consecutive pages in one go
- Keeps the pages in the order you typed them
- Right for excerpts, signature pages, single sections
You need each page separately
- Produces one PDF per page, delivered as a zip
- Filenames follow the original page numbering
- Right for filing portals that want one page per upload
- A 200 page document becomes 200 files, so check first
The range syntax, properly explained
The range field does more than it looks. It accepts single pages and runs, they combine freely in one line, and in Extract pages mode it also takes the words odd, even and last.
- A single page
7 - A continuous run
4-9 - Several of either, comma separated
1,3,7-9 - Out of order, kept as typed
9,1,4 - The whole thing in one field
1-3,5,8-10
The detail people miss is that order is preserved as written. Typing 3,1,2 does not politely sort itself into 1,2,3. It gives you those pages in that sequence, which turns the range field into a quiet reordering tool when you need one.
Why splitting never costs quality
This worries people more than it should, usually because compression has taught them that every operation on a PDF degrades it a little. Splitting does not work that way.
When a page is extracted, its content stream is copied across byte for byte, along with the fonts, images and colour data it references. Nothing is decoded and nothing is re-encoded. A 300 DPI scan is still a 300 DPI scan on the other side, and the text is still selectable vector text rather than a picture of text.
Images carry across in their original encoding. A scan stays exactly as sharp as it was.
Fonts and glyph positions are copied, so text stays selectable and searchable.
Roughly the share of the file those pages occupied, plus a copy of every shared font and image they use.
Size is the one thing that surprises people. Pull three pages out of a hundred page document and the result is not automatically three percent of the original. If those three pages carry the only photographs in the file, they may account for most of its weight. If they are plain text in a document full of images, the output will be tiny. The other surprise runs the opposite way: a font or image shared by many pages is copied into every part that uses it, so ten single-page files from a ten-page report add up to more than the report did.
Splitting, extracting and deleting
Three words for operations that overlap enough to cause confusion, and the distinction is mostly about what you keep.
Extracting keeps a selection
You name the pages you want and receive them as a new file. The original is untouched. This is the by-range mode, and it covers most real tasks.
Splitting divides the whole
Every page ends up somewhere, usually as separate files. Nothing is discarded, the document is simply distributed across more files than it started in.
Deleting keeps the remainder
You name the pages you do not want. Practically this is the same operation with the selection inverted: work out which pages remain and extract those instead.
1-4,7-10. Split PDF has a Delete pages mode anyway, and deleting pages from a PDF covers when a visual editor is quicker than a range.Splitting files you cannot open normally
An encrypted PDF cannot be split while it is still encrypted, for the obvious reason. The tool has to read the page objects to copy them, and encryption exists precisely to stop that from happening without the password.
If you have the password, remove it from your copy first, split the unlocked version, and re-protect the outputs if they need it. If you do not have the password, no splitting tool will help, and anything claiming otherwise is either guessing passwords or lying about what it does.
Getting it right in practice
Splitting is low risk, since the original is never modified. The mistakes that do happen are all about aim rather than damage. Split PDF shows every page as a thumbnail before you commit, which catches most of them.
Before typing a range, confirm the page positions in the original, especially in documents with a cover or roman numeral front matter.
Open the output too. One glance tells you whether you caught the right pages, and it is cheaper than finding out after you have sent it.
Think before choosing every page. A 400 page document becomes 400 files and a zip your machine has to build, and if you only need six of them, a range is faster.
Split a PDF in your browser
By range or every page at once. Nothing uploaded, nothing stored, no sign-up.
Common questions
What comes up once you start splitting regularly.
01What page range syntax does the tool accept?
Single pages, continuous ranges, and any combination of the two separated by commas. So 7, 4-9, and 1,3,7-9 are all valid. Order is preserved exactly as typed, so 9,1,4 gives you those three pages in that sequence rather than sorting them.
02Does splitting reduce quality?
No. Pages are copied at the object level rather than re-rendered, so images keep their original resolution and encoding and text stays selectable. There is no difference in quality between a page in the source and the same page in the output.
03Can I split a password-protected PDF?
Not while it is encrypted. Remove the password from a document you own first, then split the unlocked copy. Encryption exists to prevent exactly the kind of object-level reading that splitting requires.
04How do I delete pages instead of extracting them?
In Split PDF, choose Delete pages and type the pages to drop, for example 5-6 or last; everything else stays, in order. In a tool without a delete mode, extract the pages you want to keep instead.
05Why is my extracted page almost as big as the whole document?
Because file size follows content, not page count. If that one page holds a full-page photograph or a high resolution scan and the rest of the document is text, it was most of the file's weight all along.
06Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. The work happens in the browser, so any current mobile browser can do it. Every-page mode is the heavy one, because it holds every output and the zip in memory at once. If it stalls on a long scan, split the file into halves by range first, then run every-page mode on each half.