How to Split a PDF Into Individual Pages

Working with a large PDF but only need a few specific pages? Splitting a PDF lets you extract exactly what you need — whether that's pulling out a single page from a contract, isolating chapters from an ebook, or breaking a report into sections for different team members.

This guide walks you through splitting PDFs using different methods, with a focus on keeping your documents private and your workflow efficient.

Method 1: Split PDF Online with PDFably (Recommended)

The fastest and most private way to split a PDF is using PDFably's Split PDF tool. Unlike most online tools, PDFably processes your file entirely in your browser — nothing gets uploaded to any server.

Steps to split your PDF:

1. Open the Split PDF tool and upload your file
2. Choose between extracting all pages or selecting a specific range
3. For specific pages, enter numbers like "1,3,5-8" to extract only those pages
4. Click Split and download your individual page files

Method 2: Using Preview on Mac

Mac users have a built-in option through Preview. Open your PDF, go to View > Thumbnails, select the pages you want, then drag them to your desktop. This creates a new PDF with just those pages. It works, but it's clunky for extracting many pages at once.

Method 3: Using Google Chrome

Open your PDF in Chrome, press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac), change the destination to "Save as PDF," and specify which pages you want in the page range field. This is a workaround rather than a proper solution — it re-renders the PDF which can sometimes affect formatting.

Why Browser-Based Splitting Is Better

Desktop software like Adobe Acrobat can split PDFs, but it requires installation, costs money, and takes up disk space. Cloud-based tools require uploading your documents to remote servers — a privacy concern for sensitive files like contracts, financial records, or medical documents.

PDFably's approach eliminates both problems. It runs in your browser with no installation, processes files on your device with no upload, and works on any operating system — Windows, Mac, Linux, or mobile.

Common Scenarios for PDF Splitting

Legal work: Extract signature pages from contracts, isolate specific clauses for review, or separate exhibits from the main document. Many law firms use PDF splitting daily when preparing case materials.

Academic use: Pull specific chapters from textbook PDFs, extract problem sets for distribution, or separate your thesis into individual chapters for review by different committee members.

Business operations: Split monthly reports into department-specific sections, extract individual invoices from batch PDF exports, or separate pages of a scanned document that contains multiple unrelated forms.

After Splitting: What Else Can You Do?

Once you've split your PDF, you might want to further process the extracted pages. PDFably offers several complementary tools:

• Compress PDF — reduce the file size of extracted pages before emailing
• Merge PDF — combine selected pages with other documents into a new file
• Rotate PDF — fix orientation on pages that were scanned sideways
• PDF to JPG — convert extracted pages to images for presentations or social media