PDF Extract Pages

Extraction versus deletion

Extracting produces a new document containing only the pages you named. Deleting produces a new document containing everything except them. They are complements, and which one is less work depends on the ratio: to keep three pages of a 200-page report, extract; to remove a single appendix, delete. The original file is never modified either way.

Selection syntax

Ranges use a hyphen and lists use commas, so 1-3,7,12-15 selects nine pages. Odd and even selection is useful when a duplex scanner has produced a document where one side of every sheet is upside down or blank. Selecting the first or last N pages handles the common cases of pulling a cover letter or a signature page without counting.

All selections refer to physical page positions. On a document whose printed numbering starts after front matter, printed page 1 is not physical page 1, and this is the single most common cause of extracting the wrong pages.

Extraction is lossless

Pages are copied byte-for-byte along with the resources they reference, so text remains selectable, images keep their original resolution, and nothing is re-encoded. This is not a re-render: an extracted page is visually identical to the source page, and the text layer of a searchable scan survives intact.

Ordering

Extracted pages appear in ascending page order regardless of the order you list them in, so a selection of 5,1,3 produces pages 1, 3, 5. Producing a document in a custom order is a reordering operation, not an extraction, and needs a tool that rearranges rather than selects.

Nothing leaves your device

The file is read locally and the new document is generated in your browser. Extracting a signature page or a single confidential appendix does not upload the entire source document to anyone.