Splitting a PDF and Extracting Pages, Explained
How to split a PDF or extract pages: writing page ranges like 1-3, 5, splitting every N pages or by file size, and what happens to bookmarks, links and size.
By Udit Agarwal · Updated October 18, 2026
Splitting a PDF copies some of its pages into a new file, or divides the whole document into several smaller files, and leaves the original as it was. You pick the pages with a page range such as 1-3, 5, 7-9, with a fixed number of pages per file, or with a size limit when the parts must fit an email or an upload form. The pages are copied rather than redrawn, so text stays selectable and images keep their quality.
Extracting and splitting are the same operation seen from two sides. Extracting copies the pages you choose into one new PDF; splitting cuts a document into several files that each hold a run of pages. Either way, the tool creates a new document and copies page objects into it, each with the text, fonts and images it uses. Nothing on the page is re-rendered or recompressed.
What stays behind is anything that belongs to the document as a whole rather than to a page, such as the bookmarks and the form that ties fillable fields together. Both are covered below, along with file size, which surprises most people the first time they split a file.
The usual notation is the one print dialogs use: commas separate items, a hyphen joins the first and last page of a run, and both ends count. So 1-3, 5, 7-9 selects pages 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9, seven pages in all. This is how ArrayKit's Split PDF reads what you type, on a 12-page document:
| You type | Pages selected |
|---|---|
| 7 | 7 |
| 1-3, 5, 7-9 | 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 (spaces are optional) |
| 9-7 | 7, 8, 9 (a reversed range is turned round) |
| 5, 1, 3 | 1, 3, 5 (always saved in ascending order) |
| 1-4, 3-6 | 1 to 6 (overlapping pages are included once) |
| 1-12 | every page |
| 5- or 5-end | Not accepted: type 5-12 |
| 0 or 13 | Not accepted: pages run from 1 to 12 |
Two details catch people out. First, the numbers are positions in the file, not the numbers printed on the pages. If a report has four unnumbered front pages, the page printed as 1 is page 5 of the file, and a PDF with page labels may show i, ii and iii in your viewer while a range still counts from the very first page. Second, typeset text writes ranges with an en dash (12–15), so a range copied from a document may need its dash retyped as a plain hyphen.
Splitting every N pages cuts a document into equal runs: every 2 pages for a stack of two-page forms, every 10 for review packets. The number of files is the page count divided by N, rounded up, and the last file holds whatever is left. A 47-page document split every 10 pages gives five files: pages 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and 41-47.
Split PDF makes one file per run, so for an every-N split you type each range in turn and download each file. Two other tools save the repetition in common cases. When N is 1, PDF to ZIP saves every page as its own PDF inside one archive. When the documents in a stack differ in length, cut at their content instead: Split PDF by Text starts a new file on every page that contains a phrase such as "Invoice No", and Split PDF by Bookmarks cuts at the chapter bookmarks and names each part after its bookmark.
To pull out one page, type its number alone, such as 7. The result is a one-page PDF with the same page size, text and images as the original page. To save every page as a separate file, PDF to ZIP builds one archive with a PDF for each page, which keeps the text selectable, or with a PNG or JPG image of each page. If you want a page as a picture for a slide or a message, see how PDF pages become images.
When the goal is an attachment or upload limit, counting pages is the wrong measure, because one scanned page can weigh more than fifty pages of text. Split PDF by Size first saves every page as a document of its own to measure what it costs, then fills parts in page order. Pages go into the current part until the next one would push it over the limit, and that page starts the next part.
Take a 12-page scan of 25.4 MB whose pages weigh 2.1, 1.8, 2.4, 1.9, 2.2, 2.0, 2.6, 1.7, 2.3, 2.5, 1.9 and 2.0 MB, split with a 10 MB limit:
| Part | Pages | Measured size |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-4 | 8.2 MB (adding page 5 would make 10.4 MB) |
| 2 | 5-8 | 8.5 MB |
| 3 | 9-12 | 8.7 MB |
Each page was measured with its own copy of the fonts and images it uses, so a part whose pages share them comes out smaller than its measured total, and multi-page parts land under the limit. The exception is a page that is bigger than the limit by itself: it becomes a part of its own, over the limit. If every page is too big, the tool says so; compress the document first or raise the limit.
Type the limit as 800 KB, 5 MB or a plain number of bytes, or pick 500 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB or 5 MB; the tool counts 1 MB as 1,048,576 bytes. The parts are numbered so they sort in order, and you can save them one by one or together as a ZIP. For email, remember that attachments grow by about a third when they are encoded for sending (RFC 2045), so a 15 MB part travels as about 20 MB. Set the limit well below what your mail service allows.
Splitting copies pages, so the same rule applies as for merging: whatever sits on a page travels with it, and the parts that belong to the whole document stay behind unless the tool rebuilds them. With ArrayKit's split tools:
Bookmarks still help before you split, because Split PDF by Bookmarks uses them to decide where to cut.
The parts of a split PDF usually add up to more than the original. Fonts, logos and other images used on many pages are stored once in the original, but every file that uses them needs its own copy. A 3-page report of 69 KB, split into single pages with ArrayKit, gave files of 40, 33 and 33 KB: 106 KB in all, 54 percent more than the original, because each file carries its own fonts.
For the same reason a one-page extract can be larger than its share of the original, especially when the page uses a large embedded font or image. Splitting divides a document but does not compress it. If the parts are still too large, compress them; why PDFs get big explains the options and what each one costs in quality.
On a Mac, Preview can extract pages: choose View > Thumbnails, select the pages in the sidebar and drag them to the desktop, which saves them as a new PDF. On Windows, the usual workaround is printing: open the PDF, choose the Microsoft Print to PDF printer, enter a page range and save. Printing redraws the pages, so links stop working and comments and form fields are either printed into the page or dropped, while a tool that copies pages keeps web links and comments as they were.
Split PDF extracts pages into one new file. Drop in a PDF and it shows the file's size and page count. Type the pages in the Pages to extract box, and a note lists exactly which pages are selected, or explains what is wrong, such as a page past the end. Extract & download saves those pages in ascending order as a new file named after the original with -pages added, such as report-pages.pdf. The original is not changed, and the file is read and split in your browser without being uploaded.
It has limits. It makes one file per run, so a split into several files takes one run per range. Pages always come out in ascending order; reorder them afterwards with Organize PDF. Bookmarks, page labels and document information are not copied. It does not decrypt, so it refuses a password-protected PDF and points you to Decrypt PDF, which removes the protection with the open password. For a file that opens without a password but restricts printing or copying, Remove PDF Restrictions saves a clean copy you can split.
How do I extract specific pages from a PDF? Open the PDF in a split tool, type the pages as a range such as 2-4, 9 and save. In ArrayKit's Split PDF the selected pages go into one new file, in ascending order, and the original stays as it was.
How do I split a PDF into separate pages? Use a tool that saves one file per page. ArrayKit's PDF to ZIP puts every page into its own PDF inside one archive. For a single page, type just its number in Split PDF.
How do I split a PDF every 2 pages? Work out the ranges: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and so on, which gives half the page count in files, rounded up. In ArrayKit's Split PDF, extract each range in turn.
How do I split a PDF that is too big to email? Split it by size. Split PDF by Size measures every page and packs the pages, in order, into parts under the limit you set. Allow for email encoding, which makes attachments about a third larger.
Does splitting a PDF reduce quality? No. The pages are copied, not redrawn, so text stays selectable and images keep their resolution. Only compression lowers quality.
Why are the split files bigger in total than the original? Fonts and images shared by many pages are stored once in the original, but each new file needs its own copy. Splitting into single pages shows the effect most.
Can I split a password-protected PDF? Only once the protection is removed. ArrayKit's Split PDF refuses a protected file and points you to Decrypt PDF, which removes the protection with the open password. If the file opens without a password and only restricts printing or copying, Remove PDF Restrictions saves a clean copy you can split instead.