Five ways to split a PDF
| Mode | What you get | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Every page | One PDF per page | Sending single pages, separating invoices scanned as one file |
| Every N pages | Files of 2, 5, 10… pages each | A batch scan of two-page forms, email-sized chunks |
| Custom ranges | One PDF per range, e.g. 1-3, 4-10, 11- | Pulling sections out by page number |
| By bookmarks | One PDF per top-level bookmark, named after it | Reports, manuals and e-books with a table of contents |
| Cut pages in half | Every page becomes two pages in one PDF | Scanned books and two-up printouts |
The page previews show where each new file starts. Click any page to start a new file there, click it again to remove that split, and the ranges box updates to match — often quicker than working out page numbers.
Split by chapter using bookmarks
Long PDFs exported from Word, Google Docs, LaTeX or InDesign usually carry bookmarks:
the clickable outline your PDF reader shows in its sidebar. By bookmarks
uses them as split points. Each top-level bookmark starts a new file and gives it its
name, so a chapter called "Results" becomes 03-Results.pdf. Pages before the
first bookmark — a cover or contents page — become their own file, and
bookmarks nested inside a chapter move with it into the new file. If the option is
greyed out, the PDF has no bookmarks; custom ranges will do the job instead.
Cutting scanned pages in half
Phone scanning apps and flatbed scanners often capture an open book as one wide page with two pages side by side. Cut pages in half turns every page into a left and a right page, or a top and a bottom page for handouts printed two to a sheet. Nothing is redrawn: each half is the same page with a narrower visible area, so text stays sharp, searchable and selectable. Pages stored rotated are cut along the side you actually see on screen, not the way they happen to be saved inside the file.
The cut is made exactly down the middle of the page. If a scan is off-centre, one half will carry a little of the other page's margin — the text on each half is still complete as long as the gutter was in the middle third of the scan.
Each part is a complete, lean PDF
A split file should contain its own pages and nothing else. That sounds obvious, but PDF pages are tied together by internal links and bookmarks, and a careless split can drag the whole original into every part — a 20 MB report turning into ten 20 MB files. Here each part includes only its own pages and the fonts and images those pages use. Links that jump between pages of the same part keep working, links to pages that landed in another part are switched off, bookmarks follow the pages they point to, and the title and author are copied from the original.
File names that stay in order
Parts are numbered with leading zeros — report-page-007.pdf rather
than report-page-7.pdf — so they sort correctly in any folder, email
attachment list or ZIP. When there is more than one file, Download all as
ZIP bundles them into a single download.
Nothing is uploaded
The best-known PDF sites split files on their servers, and some keep options such as splitting by file size behind a subscription. This splitter reads and writes the PDF inside your browser tab: your document never leaves your device, there is no account or watermark, and there is no limit on pages or file size beyond what your device can hold in memory.