What "split" means in this tool
The splitter has two modes, and they produce different output, so it is worth knowing which one you are in.
- Page-range mode (default): you type a selection such as
1-3, 5and get one new file,split.pdf, containing exactly those pages in the order you listed them. A list with several ranges is not cut into several files; it is gathered into a single PDF. - "Split every page into its own file": the tool loops over the document and saves each page as its own PDF (
page-01.pdf,page-02.pdfand so on, zero-padded so they sort correctly), then bundles them all into a singlesplit-pages.zipdownload.
Under the hood, pdf-lib opens your file, creates a blank document and calls copyPages with the zero-based page indices, then saves the result. Page content streams, fonts and images are carried across untouched.
How the range text is read
Entries are split on commas. Each one is either a single number or a start-end range. Numbers outside the document (page 40 of a 12-page file) are silently dropped, duplicates are removed, and a backwards range such as 5-3 is treated as 3-5. If nothing valid is left, you get "No valid pages in that range" rather than an empty file.
Worked example
A 12-page contract has the signature block on page 12 and the schedule on pages 5 to 7. Entering 1-3, 5 gives a 4-page split.pdf made of pages 1, 2, 3 and 5. Entering 5-7, 12 gives the schedule plus the signature page, 4 pages again. Ticking "split every page" on the same file gives one split-pages.zip holding 12 single-page PDFs, page-01.pdf to page-12.pdf.
Limits and common mistakes
- Expecting several output files from several ranges. To get pages 1-3 and pages 4-6 as two separate PDFs, run the tool twice, once per range.
- Unzipping. Every-page mode delivers one ZIP rather than many separate downloads, so there is nothing to approve in the browser. Open the ZIP with your system's unzip tool. The ZIP stores the PDFs without extra compression, since PDF pages are already compressed.
- Bookmarks and metadata. The new files are fresh documents, so the outline and title are not copied. See the Merge PDF explainer for the same trade-off in the other direction.
- Encrypted files. A password-protected PDF cannot be loaded, and you will see "Could not read this PDF".
If you only want to keep or discard certain pages from one document, Extract PDF Pages is built for that, and it also lets you reorder the pages you keep.