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Datatool360

How to Split a PDF Into Pages or Smaller Files

By the Datatool360 team ·

You rarely need a whole 200 page PDF. You need the signature page, chapter four, or one invoice out of a monthly statement. Here is how to take a PDF apart, which of the six split modes to pick, and what to expect from the result.

Want to do it right now? Open the Split PDF tool

Why people split PDFs

The usual reasons are practical. A form accepts files only up to a certain size. Each person in a group should get only their own part of a document. You want to send the relevant pages and not the whole file. Or a scanner produced one huge PDF for a stack of separate papers, and you want them apart again.

Split a PDF step by step

  1. Open the Split PDF tool and add your PDF.
  2. Choose a split mode. The next section explains when to use which.
  3. Look at the line above the button: it tells you whether you will get one PDF or several files in a ZIP. If that is not what you expected, change the mode or the pages.
  4. Press Split PDF. One result is saved as a PDF, several results come as a ZIP.

The file is cut in your browser, so it is not uploaded anywhere.

The six modes, and when to use which

  • Page Range: type the pages you want, such as 1-5, 8, 11-13. You get one new PDF with those pages, in the order you typed them. That also means you can reorder pages here: typing 3, 1, 2 gives a file that starts with page three. An empty box keeps every page.
  • Visual Select: the same thing, but by clicking the page thumbnails. The thumbnails and the typed range always show the same pages, so you can mix both. This is the easiest way when you do not remember the page numbers but know what the page looks like.
  • Even/Odd: only the odd pages (1, 3, 5 …) or only the even pages (2, 4, 6 …). Useful when a double sided document was scanned in two passes and the pages need to be sorted out.
  • Every Page: each page becomes its own PDF, named page_01, page_02 and so on, so they sort correctly. Fine for a statement where every page is a separate letter. For a long document it creates many files, but they all arrive in one ZIP.
  • Split N Parts: the pages are divided into a number of equal parts. If they do not divide evenly, the first parts get one page more than the last ones.
  • Bookmarks: some PDFs have a clickable table of contents on the side. This mode starts a new file at every bookmark and names the file after it. Pages before the first bookmark go into a first file of their own. A PDF without bookmarks cannot be split like this, and the tool tells you.

Writing page ranges

A dash means “from … to …”, so 3-6 is pages three, four, five and six. If you write only the start, such as 8-, the range runs to the last page. Separate pages and ranges with commas. If you ask for a page that does not exist in the file, the tool names the page instead of guessing.

Things to know

  • The bookmarks are used to decide where to cut, but they are not copied into the new files.
  • Pages that were rotated stay rotated.
  • A password protected file cannot be split as it is. Unlock it first with the Lock & Unlock PDF tool, then split the unlocked copy.
  • Splitting happens on your own device, so a very large PDF needs a lot of memory. If it struggles, take it a part at a time.
  • If the pieces are still too big for a form, run them through Compress PDF.

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