Most of the time you don't want "a split PDF". You want one chapter out of a 300-page manual, or a pile of scanned letters turned back into separate letters, or a report cut into pieces small enough for an upload form that refuses anything over 5 MB. Those are different jobs, and they need different settings.
Split PDF on EddiesPDF has six modes, and there are a few separate tools for the awkward cases. Below is which one to reach for, and why.
What actually happens when a PDF is split
A PDF isn't one long stream of text. It's a set of page objects, each pointing to the fonts, images and drawing instructions it needs. Splitting means building new files that each contain some of those pages plus whatever resources they reference. Nothing gets re-rendered or re-compressed, so text stays selectable and images keep their original quality.
That's also why the pieces often add up to more than the original. If a company logo or an embedded font is shared by every page, each new file needs its own copy. A 10 MB file split into five parts might come out at 2.5 MB each instead of 2.
Your file isn't uploaded for any of this; the browser does the work.
Pulling out one chapter or a few pages
This is the most common request, and Page ranges is the mode for it. Type the ranges you want, for example 1-3, 5, 8-last, and each range becomes its own file. Pages you didn't mention are listed below the box, with an "Add them too" button in case you forgot something.
If you want those pages together in one file rather than as separate files, tick "Merge into one PDF". That turns the split into a pick-and-keep.
For that job there's also a dedicated Extract pages tool, which is a bit quicker when all you're doing is grabbing pages 12 to 19 and leaving the rest behind.
Splitting a scanned stack into separate documents
Say you fed 40 sheets through an office scanner in one go: three invoices, a contract, two letters. You now have a single 40-page PDF and need six files.
Use Pick split points. Each page shows as a thumbnail, and you click a page (or the gap after it) to start a new file after that page. Shift-click marks a run of pages. The live preview colours every page by the file it will end up in, so you can see straight away that the contract runs from page 9 to 22 and isn't accidentally sharing a file with the letter after it.
The same colouring works in the other modes too. If a mode puts a split in the wrong place, click between pages to adjust it by hand.
Every N pages, after pages, every page, odd and even
"Every N pages" is for regular documents. A batch of 50 two-page invoices exported as one PDF: set "Pages per file" to 2 and you get 50 files. The last file may be shorter if the count doesn't divide evenly.
"After pages" takes a list of page numbers, like 3, 7, 12, and starts a new file after each. Handy when you already know the numbers from the table of contents.
"Every page" saves each page as its own single-page PDF. Useful for slides or certificates, but think before doing it to a 400-page document. You'll get 400 files.
"Odd / even" makes two files, one with the odd pages and one with the even pages. People mostly use it to undo a double-sided scan that came out in the wrong order, or to print one side at a time on a printer without duplex. (If you're going the other way and need to interleave front and back scans, use Alternate & mix.)
The awkward cases: bookmarks, file size and two-page spreads
Some splits don't line up with page numbers at all. These have their own tools.
- Split by bookmarks is for long reports, theses and manuals that have a bookmark panel. Bookmark level 1 splits at chapters only; deeper levels also split at sections. You can limit it to bookmarks containing a word such as "Chapter", and keep the cover and contents as their own file.
- Split by size is for upload portals and email with a size cap. You set a maximum, say 10 MB, and it fills each file with as many pages as fit. A 23 MB document split at 10 MB gives three files. The one exception: if a single page is already bigger than the limit, it can't be made smaller by splitting.
- Split in half cuts each page down the middle. It's for scanned books and magazines where every scan shows two facing pages. It can detect pages that aren't spreads (like a cover scanned on its own) and leave them whole, and it can put booklet scans back into reading order.
If the file is too big because of photos, not page count, compressing usually works better than splitting. The guide on making a PDF small enough to email covers that.
Doing it step by step
- Open Split PDF and drop your file on the upload box. A password-protected PDF asks for its password first.
- Choose a mode next to Split mode. Modes that need a number show a box for it.
- Check the coloured preview and the list of files it will create.
- Open More options if you want to change the file names or drop the bookmarks.
- Click the split button in the header. Its label tells you how many files you'll get.
One file downloads as a PDF. Several files download together as a ZIP, which you'll need to extract. On Windows, right-click and choose Extract All; on a Mac, double-click it. On an iPhone, the Files app opens ZIPs when you tap them.
Bookmarks are kept by default. Each new file keeps the bookmarks that point to its own pages, so a chapter you split off still has its section bookmarks. Tick "Discard bookmarks" if you'd rather not.
Naming the output files
"Output file names" under More options takes a pattern. It starts empty, and then each name is built from the original file name plus the pages in that part, such as report-pages-1-3.pdf. That's fine for a quick job. For anything you'll file away, type a clearer pattern before splitting (something like invoices-2026-[FILENUMBER], which numbers the files 1, 2, 3 in order), because renaming 30 files by hand afterwards is tedious.
And if you split something wrong, nothing is lost. The original file on your computer hasn't changed. Fix the split points and run it again.
Also useful: Extract pages · Split by size · Split by bookmarks · Split in half
