Taking pages out of a PDF: which tool you need
Pulling pages out of a PDF sounds like one job and is really five, and the one you pick decides what you end up holding: a new file with the pages you wanted, a copy of the original with pages missing, or a folder of one file per page. This page says which tool does which, so you start on the right one.
Which tool you need
One new PDF holding the pages you pick
Extract PDF pages is the page built for only that. Every page starts chosen, you clear the ones you do not want, and out comes a single document in the original order. Split does the same job in its extract-selected-pages mode, so if you are already here you do not have to move.
A file for each piece, not one file
This is the job only Split does: a file per page, files from ranges you name, a file every so many pages, or files divided at boundaries you place yourself. Several files arrive together as one ZIP.
The pages gone, and the rest of the document kept
Delete PDF pages. Split makes a new file out of what you chose; Delete gives you back the document you brought, minus what you chose.
The pages you want gone are the empty ones
Remove blank pages checks every page on your device and marks the blank ones for you, which matters when the empties are scanner backs scattered through a long document and you would otherwise be hunting them by eye.
The same pages, in a different order
Organize PDF. Nothing is being taken out, so a split would only put the job back together afterwards.
The PDF asks for a password before it opens
Unlock PDF first. It is the only tool here that takes the password off; most of the rest stop and say the document needs one, and Organize will take a password to show you the file but cannot save a copy of it.
Whether you get one file or a folder of them
Only one of Split's five modes gives you a single document: extracting the pages you selected. The other four — custom ranges, every page, a fixed interval, and boundaries you place yourself — produce a file per piece, and several files arrive as one ZIP, because a browser cannot hand you a folder.
So if what you want is one document, say so with the selection rather than by splitting and merging the pieces back together afterwards.
How many pieces a split will make
A split stops at 300 output files. It is a real ceiling rather than a guideline: settings that would go past it are refused before anything is processed, and the message tells you how many files they would have made, so you can widen the ranges and try again.
That is worth knowing before you point every-page mode at a 400-page scan. A fixed interval, or ranges you name, takes the same document apart in as many pieces as the limit allows.
What to know before you start
- Splitting cannot cut a PDF to a target file size. The splits available are by page selection, by ranges, by every page, at a fixed interval, or at boundaries you place.
- A password-protected PDF will not open here. Split stops and says the document needs a password rather than asking you for one, because Unlock PDF is the tool that takes a password off. Remove the password there first, on this device, and split the result.
- Your original file is never changed. Every split downloads new files and leaves what you opened exactly as it was.