PDF Split Tool

PDF splitting involves reading the PDF binary structure, identifying individual page objects within the document, and creating new PDF documents containing only the selected subset of pages. The PDF format stores pages as separate objects within a hierarchical structure, making page extraction relatively straightforward compared to other document formats.



This tool uses PDF.js (Mozilla's JavaScript PDF library) to parse the PDF, read its page structure, and identify the total page count. For splitting, pdf-lib is used to create new PDF documents by copying the selected pages from the original document to new PDFs. The libraries handle all the complexity of PDF internal structures: cross-reference tables, page trees, font subsetting, and image resource management.



All processing happens in your browser. The PDF binary data is loaded into browser memory, processed with JavaScript, and the resulting split files are generated as downloadable blobs without any server transmission. For large PDFs, this approach keeps your documents completely private.

1. Extracting Individual Chapters
Books, reports, and manuals often need to be split so individual chapters can be shared separately. A 400-page technical manual can be split into chapters for distribution to different team members, with each person receiving only the sections relevant to their role.



2. Separating Multi-Document Scans
When scanning a stack of documents using a sheet-fed scanner, multiple separate documents end up in a single PDF file. Splitting the merged scan at the document boundaries creates properly separated individual documents for filing, sharing, or processing.



3. Invoice and Receipt Processing
Accounting software often exports batches of invoices as a single PDF. Finance teams need to split these to file, share, or upload individual invoices to accounting systems. PDF splitting automates what would otherwise be a tedious manual extraction process.



4. Removing Unwanted Pages
Legal documents, contracts, and reports often contain cover pages, blank pages, or appendices that are not needed for specific use cases. Splitting to extract only the relevant page range creates a cleaner document for sharing or archiving.



5. Creating Handouts from Slide Decks
Presentation PDFs with 60 slides often need to be split into smaller sections for different audience groups. Splitting creates targeted handouts (slides 1-15 for executives, slides 16-45 for the technical team) without distributing irrelevant content.

• Check page numbers before splitting: PDF viewer page numbers may not match the actual page position in the PDF (especially if the PDF has Roman numeral front matter or starts numbering from a different page). Count pages carefully using the viewer before specifying split ranges.



• Preserve metadata where needed: When splitting for redistribution, consider that the original PDF's title, author, and other metadata may not match the extracted pages. Update metadata in the split files if they'll be shared formally.



• Test with a small split first: For important or large PDFs, test your split parameters on a small range first to verify the output before processing the full document.



• Consider file size after splitting: Extracting a few pages from a large PDF doesn't always produce a proportionally small file—PDF resources like fonts and images may be embedded per document rather than per page. The split file may include resource overhead.