Extract Pages

Keep only the pages that matter — a chapter, a signed sheet, a single certificate — as a PDF of their own.

Runs on your devicePDFWorkingNo account needed

What this tool does

Extract Pages copies the pages you name into a newly created document and leaves the file you started with exactly as it was. The copy is made with pdf-lib rather than by re-rendering, so text stays selectable, a scan keeps the resolution it arrived at, and the output is a genuine PDF page rather than a picture of one. It is saved under the source name with -extracted on the end.

The Pages to extract field takes a number, a comma-separated list, or ranges such as 1-3, 7, last. An open range like 9- runs to the final page and -4 starts at the first. The words odd, even and all are understood too, but only when one of them is the whole entry: they are not items you can drop into a list, and 1-3, odd is rejected as an invalid range rather than read as a mixture. One behaviour is worth knowing before you type: the list is sorted into document order and de-duplicated, so 9,3 produces page 3 followed by page 9, and naming a page twice still yields it once. Ticking One PDF per page writes each named page as its own file instead, named after the source and its page number — book.pdf pages 1 and 6 come back as book-p1.pdf and book-p6.pdf.

All of this happens in this browser tab: the document is read into memory, the new file is assembled there, and it is not sent anywhere. What that costs is worth stating plainly, because a fresh document starts with nothing but the pages. The outline goes, so bookmarks do not survive; the document's own metadata, such as title and author, is not carried across; an interactive form loses the dictionary that made its fields work; and an internal link aimed at a page you left behind has nothing to resolve to. Each output also re-embeds the fonts and images its own pages use, so a three-page extract from a heavily illustrated report is not always small.

How to use it

  1. Add the PDF. Drop the document in or choose it from disk. One file is handled per run — if several are queued, the first PDF in the list is the one used.
  2. Name the pages you want. Type a number, a list or a range into Pages to extract: 1-3, 7, last. An open range such as 9- runs to the end of the document. To take a whole class of page instead, put odd, even or all in the box on its own.
  3. Decide on one file or many. Left off, One PDF per page puts every chosen page into a single new document. Ticked, each page is written out separately with its page number in the filename.
  4. Run it and save the result. The summary reports how many pages were taken and out of how many. A single file downloads on its own; several can be taken together with Download all as ZIP.

Processing & privacy

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

Common use cases

Sending one chapter for review

The other two hundred pages are noise to the reader. Pages 88-104 go out as their own PDF while the master copy stays whole.

Keeping the signed sheet

A returned contract is mostly boilerplate. The executed page on its own is the copy that gets filed and referenced later.

Separating a batch into one file per person

Certificates or payslips printed into a single PDF become individually attachable files as soon as One PDF per page is ticked.

Trimming a submission down

A portal that caps page count or refuses a large upload will often take the first ten pages when it will not take the whole document.

Questions

Is the PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. pdf-lib runs inside this tab and both the source and the extract stay on your machine, so nothing is transmitted and nothing is stored. The library itself is served from this site rather than a third-party CDN, and it is fetched once and then kept in the loaded page, so every run after the first makes no request at all. There is no offline cache behind that, though: reloading this page without a connection will not bring the tool back.
Can I pick pages in any order?
Not with this tool. The list is sorted into document order and duplicates are collapsed, so 9,3 gives page 3 then page 9, and 3,3 gives one page. Organize PDF and Reorder Pages keep the sequence you type and let a page appear more than once.
What can I type in the Pages field?
Single numbers, lists separated by commas, and ranges written 1-3 or 2 to 5. The words first and last stand in for a number wherever a number is allowed, and an open range such as 9- runs to the end. The class words odd, even and all are the exception: each has to be the entire entry, so they cannot be joined to a range or to another word. A number beyond the last page stops the run with an error naming the real page count.
What is lost compared with the original?
Page content survives: text, images and the annotations attached to each page are copied across. Anything that lives above the page level does not, because the extract is a new document — the outline, the document metadata and the form dictionary behind fillable fields. Flatten a filled form before extracting if the answers have to remain visible.
What happens with a password-protected PDF?
It is refused with a message rather than half-processed, because an encrypted document cannot be opened for copying. Remove the password with Unlock PDF using the password you hold, then extract from the result.
Is there a file size limit?
None is imposed, since nothing is being sent anywhere. The source and the new document are both held in memory while the extract is built, so the ceiling is your device rather than a policy — a large scan on a phone is the case most likely to struggle.
How does this differ from Split PDF or Delete Pages?
Extract Pages keeps a subset and discards the rest. Split PDF divides the whole document into parts so that nothing is thrown away, and Delete Pages is the mirror image of this tool: you name what goes, and everything you did not name is kept.

Related tools

  • Merge PDF — Combine several PDFs into one document in the order you choose.
  • Split PDF — Split one PDF into separate documents by page range.
  • Compress PDF — Reduce PDF file size while preserving the quality that matters.
  • PDF to JPG — Export every page of a PDF as a JPG image.
  • JPG to PDF — Turn one or many JPG photos into a single PDF.
  • Protect PDF — Add a password and set permissions on a PDF.