How to split a PDF and extract exactly the pages you need
By Nasir Uddin Shamim4 guidesOpen the PDF in a split tool and choose a mode: single pages, custom ranges such as 1-3,5,8-, or every N pages. Extracting keeps the chosen pages in one new file; splitting produces several files. The original on your disk is never modified by any of them.
Splitting, extracting and deleting are three names for the same underlying edit: deciding which pages end up in which file. The difference is what you keep. Splitting produces several files, extracting produces one file holding a subset, and deleting produces the original minus a few pages. These guides cover the range syntax every tool uses, the every-N-pages mode, and the specific case that sends most people looking in the first place, a PDF too large to email.
Every guide in this topic
How to split a PDF into separate pages or ranges
Open the PDF in a split tool, choose a mode, and download the results. Three modes cover almost everything: split into single pages, split by custom ranges such as 1-3,5,8-, or split every N pages into equal chunks. Output arrives as separate PDFs or one ZIP archive.
How to extract specific pages from a PDF
Open the PDF in an extract tool, tick the pages you want or type a range like 4-9, then download a new PDF containing only those pages. The original is untouched. Extracting differs from splitting: you keep one file with a chosen subset instead of many files.
How to delete pages from a PDF
Open the PDF in a page editor, select the thumbnails of the pages you want gone or type a range such as 2,5,11-13, then delete and download. Deleting pages from a copy is safe: the original file on your disk is unchanged until you replace it yourself.
How to split a large PDF to get under an email size limit
Gmail allows 25 MB per message and Outlook.com allows 20 MB, but Base64 encoding inflates attachments by about a third, so aim for 18 MB or less. Compress the PDF first; if it is still too big, split it into numbered parts that each land under that ceiling.
Tools for this job
Split PDF
Break into ranges or pages
Extract Pages
Keep only what you need
Delete Pages
Remove pages by number
Compress PDF
Shrink file size
Other topics
Printing web pages
Print any web page without ads, sidebars or navigation. Reader mode, print preview, browser print settings and a free printer-friendly tool that runs in your browser.
Saving web pages as PDF
Save any web page as a PDF in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, iPhone or Android. Print-to-PDF, full-page screenshots, and archiving that survives link rot.
Merging PDF files
Combine PDFs into one file for free. Drag to set the page order, mix in JPG and PNG images, keep bookmarks, and merge without Adobe Acrobat on Windows or Mac.
Compressing PDF files
Compress a PDF in your browser for free. Lossless structural compression, image downsampling, DPI targets, email size limits and why your PDF got so big.
Converting PDF to other formats
How to get a PDF back into an editable format: Word, Excel, plain text and slides, what each conversion really preserves, and when the answer is to retype.
Converting files to PDF
Turn documents, spreadsheets, web pages and photos into PDFs that look right. Font embedding, print areas, page-break CSS and the DPI that matters in print.