Drop a PDF here or click to upload
Select pages, then extract them
Or drop files anywhere on this page. Files are processed in your browser and never uploaded.
How to extract pages from a PDF
Select pages from a PDF and save them as a new file. The original PDF is not changed.
Add your PDF
Drag the PDF onto the upload box, click to choose it, or import it from Google Drive. A password-protected file asks for its password before the pages load.
Select the pages to keep
Click the page thumbnails to select them. Shift-click selects a range. You can also type ranges such as 1-3, 5, 8- and click Select, or use All, Odd, Even, Invert and Clear.
Choose the output
The Output menu has three choices: One PDF with all selected pages (the default), A separate PDF for each page, or A separate PDF for each range. Several files are downloaded together as a ZIP. More options has Discard bookmarks and a pattern for the output file names.
Extract and download
Click the Extract button in the header; it shows the number of selected pages. The results screen lets you preview each file, download, save to Google Drive, open a file in another tool, or delete the files.
Getting the right pages, and only those pages
Printed page numbers aren't file page numbers
The numbers you type count pages from the start of the file: 1 is the first page in the PDF, whatever is printed on it. Reports, books and court bundles often disagree with that. A cover, a contents page and ten pages of roman-numbered front matter push printed page 88 to somewhere around page 100 in the file.
Some PDFs also carry page labels, which make a reader's toolbar show "iv" or "A-3" instead of a plain count. Extract pages ignores those labels and goes by position. So when someone asks for "pages 88 to 93", find page 88 in the thumbnails first and check the position number under it. The labels aren't copied into the new file either, so its pages are numbered 1, 2, 3 in any reader.
What stays with the old file
The new PDF is built from scratch and the chosen pages are copied into it. Anything stored at the level of the whole document, rather than on a page, doesn't come along:
- Files attached to the document as a whole, such as a spreadsheet attached to a report. Attachments placed on a page as a comment icon travel with that page.
- Accessibility tags, the hidden structure that screen readers use to read headings, lists and tables in order. The extract is an untagged PDF.
- Opening settings, such as starting on a particular page, showing the bookmarks panel or opening full screen. The extract opens the way your reader opens any plain PDF.
- The password. When you open a protected PDF here and enter its password, the extract is saved without one. If the excerpt is sensitive, add a password again with Protect PDF.
Hidden content comes along too
Copying a page copies all of its content, including parts you can't see. That catches people out in three ways:
- A page cropped in another app still holds the trimmed margins. The crop only hides them, and they can come back if someone resets the page size.
- Text covered with a white box (in many editors, including the "Whiteout" tool in Edit PDF) is still there under the box and can be selected or copied.
- A scanned page that was run through OCR keeps its invisible text layer, so a reference number you can't easily read on the image may still be searchable.
None of this is a problem when you're sending a chapter to a colleague. It is when you're sending one page of a statement to a stranger. For that, remove the content properly with Redact PDF before or after extracting.
Why not just print to PDF
Most print dialogs can "Save as PDF" with a page range, and the result looks similar. The difference is how it's made. Printing redraws the pages through a print driver, so links usually stop working, comments and form fields are flattened or dropped, and text can come out differently depending on the app. Extracting copies the page objects unchanged, so the text, images and links are exactly what was in the original.
Features
- Copies selected pages from a PDF into a new file. The original is not changed.
- The PDF is processed in your browser. It is not uploaded to a server.
- Page thumbnails show the content of each page, so you can check the selection before extracting.
- Useful for sending one chapter, section or exhibit from a longer report or contract.
- Free. No software to install and no account required.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a file size limit?
There is no fixed limit, because the file is processed in your browser rather than on a server.
Does it work on phones and tablets?
Yes. It works in current browsers on phones and tablets.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The pages are extracted on your device, in the browser, and the file is never sent to a server.
