Delete Pages

Name the pages you want gone and keep the rest — rebuilt in this tab, not uploaded.

Runs on your devicePDFWorkingNo account needed

What this tool does

Delete Pages works by subtraction. You name the pages to remove, and every page you did not name is copied into a newly created document with pdf-lib, in its original order. The kept pages are copied as objects rather than redrawn, so text stays selectable and a scan keeps the resolution it arrived with. The result is saved under your original filename with -pages-removed added.

One field does all the work, and it understands more than plain numbers. A single page is 3, a run is 4-6, an open range such as 12- reaches the end of the document and -4 starts at the beginning, and the words first and last stand in for numbers. Entries are separated by commas or semicolons, and overlap is harmless: 2-5,4 removes four pages rather than five, because a page named twice is still deleted once. Odd and even are also accepted, but only on their own as the entire entry — they cannot be mixed into a list.

Two jobs are refused rather than half-done. If nothing in the document matches what you typed, the run stops with a message quoting your entry instead of handing back an identical file, and a page number past the end stops it with the document's real page count. If your entry covers every page, that is refused too, on the grounds that a PDF with no pages is not a result anybody wants.

The whole operation runs in this browser tab and the document is not uploaded. What that costs is worth stating before you rely on it: because the survivors go into a freshly created file, document-level structure does not travel with them. Bookmarks and the outline are dropped, the title and author fields are not carried over, and an interactive form's field dictionary does not survive. Cross-references cut the other way, and that is the one to watch. If a page you keep carries an internal link to a page you deleted, pdf-lib follows the reference and copies the deleted page across as well, where it ends up outside the page tree: no reader will show it, but a parser can still read its text back out. An encrypted PDF cannot be opened here at all.

How to use it

  1. Add the PDF. One document, or several at once. Each file is handled separately with the same page list, so last refers to each document's own final page.
  2. Type the pages to delete. The field starts at 1. Replace it with the numbers, ranges or keywords you want removed — 1, 4-6, last is a valid entry, and so is even on its own.
  3. Delete and save what is left. The remaining pages come back as a new PDF with -pages-removed on the name. The file you started from is untouched on disk.

Processing & privacy

Runs on your device. Your file is processed directly in this browser.

Common use cases

Dropping a cover or certificate sheet

Scanners and signing services bolt an extra page onto the front or back. Removing page 1, or last, leaves the document you actually wanted to keep.

Clearing blank backs from a duplex scan

Scanning single-sided paper in double-sided mode leaves an empty page after every real one. Setting the field to even takes the whole set out in one pass.

Trimming a document before sending it

Internal appendices and pages that concern a different recipient come out before the file is attached, without rebuilding the document by hand.

Fixing a misfeed after a scan

When two sheets go through together the run has to be redone for those pages. Delete the spoiled ones, then merge the rescanned pages back in.

Questions

Does the document travel anywhere while the pages come out?
No. pdf-lib does the reading and the rewriting inside this browser tab, so the file stays on your own machine. That library is itself served from this site and fetched the first time you delete pages in a session; once it is in the page, every later run needs no network at all.
What exactly can I type in the pages field?
Single numbers, ranges such as 4-6, open ranges such as 12- or -4, and the words first and last. Odd and even work as well, but only as the whole entry — 1,odd is rejected as an invalid range, so run odd on its own and delete page 1 in a second pass.
Can I delete every page?
No. An entry that would leave nothing behind is refused before any file is written, since an empty PDF is not a useful outcome. All is therefore never a valid entry here.
Do bookmarks, form fields and metadata survive?
Page content does: text, images and the annotations sitting on each page you keep. Document-level structure does not, because the output is a new file — the outline, the title and author fields and a form's field dictionary are not carried across.
Does the file get smaller?
Usually, and roughly in proportion to what you removed, because the new document is built out of the resources the pages you kept actually reference. A font or logo also used by a page you kept stays embedded, so dropping half the pages rarely halves the bytes.
Is a deleted page's content really gone from the file?
In a plain document, yes — the page leaves the page tree and nothing of it is written. One exception is worth checking before you rely on this for something sensitive. Where a page you kept links internally to a page you deleted, as a contents page or a cross-referenced report does, the copier follows that link and writes the deleted page into the output as an object no viewer displays, whose text a PDF parser can still recover. Delete those linking pages too, or use Redact PDF when destroying content rather than shortening a document is the actual job.
Can I drop pages from a password-protected PDF?
Not directly. Encrypted documents are refused with a message pointing at Unlock PDF; remove the password there using the one you already hold, then delete pages from the result.
I only want to keep a handful of pages — is this the right tool?
Often not. Naming forty pages to remove is worse than naming four to keep, which is what Extract Pages does. Organize PDF is the better fit when you would rather see the pages and decide visually, and Split PDF when the pages you do not want should become their own file.

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