How do I save one page, or a few pages, of a PDF?
Pick one page, a page range or all pages, and each page comes back as its own PDF. When there is more than one, you also get them in a ZIP. Files are named after their place in the original, so page 7 becomes page_007.pdf.
Can I keep pages 3 to 7 in one file?
Not with this tool. Every selected page becomes its own PDF, and the ZIP holds them separately. For one five-page file, split the range here, then join the five pages in order with the merge tool, which uses one more check. Printing to PDF in Chrome or Edge with a page range also works.
Does splitting a 200-page PDF use 200 checks?
No. Each run uses one check, however many files it writes. A long document takes longer and gives you a long list of pages. If you only need a few of them, a range split is faster.
Why are my split pages so big?
Every page file is a complete PDF, so the pieces add up to more than the original. Some files also share one set of photos across all pages. In our test, each one-page file from a 5.78 MB photo PDF weighed 5.77 MB. Compressing the original first brought each page down to 1.46 MB.
Three ways to choose pages
The splitter has three modes. All pages writes every page of the document. Page range takes a first and last page number and writes every page between them, inclusive. Single page writes one page. There is no field for a list such as 1, 4, 7-9; for scattered pages, run a range or single split for each block and combine the results with the merge tool.
Every mode produces one PDF per page. A range from 3 to 7 gives five separate files, not one five-page document. Each file is named after its position in the original, so page 7 becomes page_007.pdf even when it is the only page you asked for. When more than one file is produced, the set is also packed into split_pages.zip.
What happens to page numbers outside the document
Numbers are adjusted to fit the document instead of causing an error. Page numbers must be whole numbers of 1 or more; a 0 or a negative number is refused before upload. These are the results we got from a 10-page file:
| Mode and input | Files written | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Range, 2 to 3 | page_002.pdf, page_003.pdf |
Both pages exist. |
| Range, 3 to 99 | Pages 3 to 10, eight files | The last page is capped at the document length. |
| Range, 5 to 2 | page_005.pdf only |
An end before the start is raised to the start page. |
| Single page, 40 | page_010.pdf |
A page past the end becomes the last page. |
| Range with the end field cleared | From the start page to the last page | An empty end page defaults to the last page. |
Why split pages can be larger than you expect
Each page file is a complete PDF with its own header, page tree and cross-reference table, so the pieces add up to more than the original. Our 13.6 KB, 10-page TCPDF text file split into ten files of 6.9 KB each, 69.4 KB in total.
A bigger surprise comes from how some programs store images. In our 4-page, 5.78 MB photo file, every page pointed to one shared list of resources that named all four photos. When a page is copied, the resources it points to are copied with it, so each single-page file carried all four photos and weighed 5.77 MB, although it showed only one.
Rewriting the file first fixes this. After running the same photo file through the compressor at Quality Focused, which left the photos at full resolution but gave each page its own resource list, the split pages were 1.46 MB each.
Quick test for the shared-resource problem
Split the file with All pages and compare the sizes on the results page. If each one-page file is close to the size of the whole original, compress the original with Quality Focused or Print production and split that copy instead.
What each page file keeps
- Kept: the page content, including selectable text, images at their stored quality and vector drawings, plus the original page width, height and orientation.
- Removed: bookmarks, hyperlinks and form fields. A page with a fillable field comes out with the field gone.
- Removed: digital signatures. A signed one-page file split with All pages came back with no signature, according to pdfsig.
- Not copied: the title, author and other document properties. TCPDF is listed as the producer.
Error messages
Split failed: This PDF document is encrypted and cannot be processed with FPDI.The file has a password or permission restrictions. Unlock it first, then split the unlocked copy.- Files with compressed object streams from PDF 1.5 no longer fail. The splitter rewrites them with a classic cross-reference table first, using qpdf or Ghostscript. Until 12 October 2026 they stopped with "This PDF document probably uses a compression technique which is not supported by the free parser shipped with FPDI."
- A daily limit message: each successful split uses one check, however many pages it writes. Guests and Free accounts have 100 checks a day; a failed split does not use one.
Splitting with Preview, Chrome or qpdf instead
When you want one file that holds pages 3 to 7, a reader does it in one step and this splitter does not. In Chrome or Edge, open the PDF, print it, choose Save as PDF and type the page range. In Preview, select the thumbnails and drag them to the desktop, or delete the pages you do not want and save a copy. Acrobat Pro has an Organize Pages view that can also split a long document by page count.
On the command line, qpdf writes any selection of pages into a single file: qpdf report.pdf --pages . 3-7,12 -- extract.pdf. It keeps links and form fields on the pages, takes a password with --password=, and by default drops resources a page does not use, which avoids the shared-resource size problem described above. Its --split-pages option does the one-file-per-page job this tool does.
Use PDFCheck when nothing can be installed, when every page should become its own file anyway, such as separating scanned invoices or signed pages for filing, or when a ZIP of single pages is what you need to upload somewhere else.
Before you split
- How long can I download the pages? The uploaded original is deleted right after the split. The page files and the ZIP stay until the hourly cleanup removes files more than 24 hours old, and only the browser session that ran the split can open the results page; after that the links return "File not found".
- Why is there no ZIP download? The ZIP is only created when more than one file was written. A single-page split, or a range that collapses to one page, offers only that one page file.
Last updated . How this was checked: we split synthetic test PDFs with the same FPDI 2.6 and TCPDF 6.11 code this tool runs (6.11.4 for the text-file sizes), using a 10-page text file, a 4-page photo file and a 3-page file with bookmarks, links and a form field, then inspected the pages with qpdf, pdfinfo and pdfsig.