HomePDF ToolsPDF Split

one pdf. separate pages.

split a PDF into individual pages or custom ranges. 100% client-side — your files never leave your browser.

drop a PDF here

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PDF

your files never leave your browser

What this tool does

Drop a PDF in, choose either “split into individual pages” or specify custom ranges, hit split, and download the resulting files — either individually or as a zip. Everything runs in your browser; no upload, no server.

The two split modes

Split each page takes an N-page PDF and produces N separate one-page PDFs. Useful when you have a multi-page scan that should never have been one document, or when you need to process pages individually downstream.

Split by range lets you specify which pages go into which output. The syntax is the same shorthand most printer dialogs accept:

text
1-3, 7, 10-15

Three outputs:
  - pages 1, 2, 3
  - page 7
  - pages 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Pages not mentioned in any range are dropped. This is usually the intent — “split” is more often shorthand for “extract just what I need” than “break the document into every possible piece.”

How splitting actually works

Despite the name, splitting is not the inverse of merging. Both operations build new PDFs by copying pages from a source document into a fresh container, with one difference: the source contributes all of its pages to a merge, and only some of them to a split.

The page objects in a PDF carry references to shared resources — fonts, images, color profiles, embedded files. When the splitter copies page 7, it also copies the resources that page references, and only those. A 200-page document with a font embedded once gets the font copied into each output that has at least one page using it. The outputs are individually self-contained, which is what you want.

What does not survive a split

  • Bookmarks / outlines tied to the original document structure. The output PDFs are flat — bookmarks would point at pages that no longer exist.
  • Internal links from a kept page to a dropped page become dead links. PDF readers generally handle this gracefully, but the click does nothing.
  • Document-level metadata (author, title, custom fields) is preserved on each output by default. If you are publishing the splits, audit metadata before sharing — the author field can leak more than you intend.
  • Form field stateon extracted pages survives, but the form's logical structure across the original document does not. Calculated fields that depended on inputs on dropped pages will not recompute.

The privacy posture is the same as merge

The same in-browser, no-upload guarantee applies. Your PDF goes through the File API, gets parsed in memory, and the output Blobs get downloaded directly from the tab. The byte stream of your document does not cross a network boundary. The longer write-up is at Why every PDF tool on Persimmon runs in your browser.

If you only need to remove one page

Split by range and list every page except the one you want gone: 1-15, 17-30for a 30-page doc with page 16 removed. The output will be a single combined file from those two ranges if you select “merge ranges into one document.”

Common workflows this handles well

  • Pulling a single signed-page back out of a 30-page contract for forwarding.
  • Separating a multi-form filing (W-2s, 1099s) into individual documents for an accountant.
  • Extracting just the figures and tables from a research paper for a slide deck.
  • Removing cover pages, blank scans, or office-mailroom fax-coversheets before archiving.

For the inverse operation (combining several PDFs back into one), see PDF merge. For converting split output into image sequences, see PDF to images.

What this tool does

Drop a PDF in, choose either “split into individual pages” or specify custom ranges, hit split, and download the resulting files — either individually or as a zip. Everything runs in your browser; no upload, no server.

The two split modes

Split each page takes an N-page PDF and produces N separate one-page PDFs. Useful when you have a multi-page scan that should never have been one document, or when you need to process pages individually downstream.

Split by range lets you specify which pages go into which output. The syntax is the same shorthand most printer dialogs accept:

text
1-3, 7, 10-15

Three outputs:
  - pages 1, 2, 3
  - page 7
  - pages 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Pages not mentioned in any range are dropped. This is usually the intent — “split” is more often shorthand for “extract just what I need” than “break the document into every possible piece.”

How splitting actually works

Despite the name, splitting is not the inverse of merging. Both operations build new PDFs by copying pages from a source document into a fresh container, with one difference: the source contributes all of its pages to a merge, and only some of them to a split.

The page objects in a PDF carry references to shared resources — fonts, images, color profiles, embedded files. When the splitter copies page 7, it also copies the resources that page references, and only those. A 200-page document with a font embedded once gets the font copied into each output that has at least one page using it. The outputs are individually self-contained, which is what you want.

What does not survive a split

  • Bookmarks / outlines tied to the original document structure. The output PDFs are flat — bookmarks would point at pages that no longer exist.
  • Internal links from a kept page to a dropped page become dead links. PDF readers generally handle this gracefully, but the click does nothing.
  • Document-level metadata (author, title, custom fields) is preserved on each output by default. If you are publishing the splits, audit metadata before sharing — the author field can leak more than you intend.
  • Form field stateon extracted pages survives, but the form's logical structure across the original document does not. Calculated fields that depended on inputs on dropped pages will not recompute.

The privacy posture is the same as merge

The same in-browser, no-upload guarantee applies. Your PDF goes through the File API, gets parsed in memory, and the output Blobs get downloaded directly from the tab. The byte stream of your document does not cross a network boundary. The longer write-up is at Why every PDF tool on Persimmon runs in your browser.

If you only need to remove one page

Split by range and list every page except the one you want gone: 1-15, 17-30for a 30-page doc with page 16 removed. The output will be a single combined file from those two ranges if you select “merge ranges into one document.”

Common workflows this handles well

  • Pulling a single signed-page back out of a 30-page contract for forwarding.
  • Separating a multi-form filing (W-2s, 1099s) into individual documents for an accountant.
  • Extracting just the figures and tables from a research paper for a slide deck.
  • Removing cover pages, blank scans, or office-mailroom fax-coversheets before archiving.

For the inverse operation (combining several PDFs back into one), see PDF merge. For converting split output into image sequences, see PDF to images.

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