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Delete, Divide, and Conquer PDF Page Extraction
Maybe you need to remove a single page from a PDF to edit and then put it back in? Or, you have to take a couple of pages out and divide them into separate PDFs. Or, you just need to remove the page altogether. You are looking for how to separate pages from a PDF file or remove pages from a PDF.
In this article, we’ll be going through how to extract a PDF on Mac and Windows, as well as how to do it using our PDF.Live editor. We’re also going to explain how to delete one page from a PDF, blank pages from a PDF, or multiple pages from a PDF document. We’ll be going through how to delete specific pages from a PDF with our editor tool, as well as how to do it with our free PDF.live editor.
This post will answer how to:
- Split a PDF into multiple PDF files
- Extract one or more pages from a PDF
- How to extract pages from a pdf
- Divide large PDFs into smaller PDFs
- Save just one page or specific pages from a PDF
- Break apart and cut pages from a PDF
- Separate a PDF into individual pages or chapters
- Export just one page from a PDF
- Pull pages from a PDF
- Take pages out of a PDF
- Delete pages from a PDF
- Remove a PDF page
- How do I remove pages from a PDF
- How do I delete pages from a PDF online
- Is there a free PDF cutter online
Who knew there were so many ways to ask the same question? Whether you’re seeking to pull one page from a PDF file, extract and remove a page from a PDF, or separate one larger PDF into two or more smaller PDFs, the steps are basically the same.
First, Save Your PDF
Regardless of what you need to do, before we start, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve saved the PDF onto your computer. If you’re viewing the PDF online through a web browser, you’ll need to save it to your computer before you can do anything. To do this, you can select Print in your browser settings. If you have a Chrome browser, you’ll likely see something similar to this:
On a Mac, the save as PDF might look like this:
Rather than choosing your printer as a destination, select Save as PDF instead. This will not send the PDF to your printer, but it will download the document to your computer as a PDF. Follow your computer’s prompts to name the PDF and where you’d like to save it. Once you do this, you can edit the PDF as it’s now on your computer.
Extract a PDF Page with PDF.Live
PDF.Live allows you to extract, separate, and edit pages of a PDF all in one app. You can import your PDF by dragging the file into PDF.Live’s editor.
On the left side of the PDF editor, you’ll notice a few options for editing pages: Split PDFs, Extract Pages, Rearrange Pages, and Insert Page. These 4 tools will be what we’ll be working with for extracting, splitting, and separating a page from a PDF.
If you want to extract a page to permanently remove it from the PDF, follow those prompts.
Extract PDF pages for other uses
To extract a page from a PDF and save it in its own file, click Extract Pages on the Quick Tools bar on the left side of the screen. You’ll then be able to adjust all the pages of a PDF in one place. Click the … (three dots) next to the page you want to adjust to see the Page Manipulation settings. You can click Extract to download a single PDF with just the selected page. This will also remove the selected page from your PDF. This will work if you need to extract 1 page from a PDF or certain pages; they do not need to be consecutive pages.
Delete a Page
For deleting a page, once again simply click the … (three dots) next to the page and select the Delete Page trash can icon. You will need to confirm you want to delete the page, as it will be gone from this version of your document. Remember to save a backup of your original PDF in case you accidentally delete the wrong pages.
Separate PDFs on Mac
Apple devices come with the Preview App, which allows you to open and edit PDFs on your computer. With preview, you can add, delete, move and copy pages within Preview.
- Delete PDF pages on a Mac
- To delete a page, open Preview and go to View > Thumbnails to select the page or pages to delete and use the delete key on your keyboard. You can also go to Edit > Delete. Be careful! There’s no warning button to confirm that you want to delete the page; once you hit the delete key, the page is gone. You can, however, use the Undo command or the Revert Changes option to restore pages that you didn’t intend to delete.
- Extract one page from a PDF on a Mac
- The easiest way to extract a single page from a PDF is to open Preview and, from the thumbnail view, click and drag the page to your desktop.
- Move pages
- To move pages, go to View > Thumbnails or View > Contact Sheet, and then drag the pages to where you’d like them to go in the PDF
- Copy pages from one PDF to another
- Similarly to moving pages, go to View > Thumbnails or View > Contact Sheet and drag the thumbnail images from one PDF to the other.
Separate PDFs on Windows
Most Windows devices do not have a PDF editor included. However, when you’re using the above steps to obtain your PDF from a browser, you may have noticed that you can print specific pages of a PDF separately. If you see the destination called “Microsoft Print to PDF,” you can extract specific pages from a PDF.
There are other ways to remove pages from PDFs without external software. For example, using your browser of choice, you can open and view a PDF and select Print. Then, select Save as PDF and select the pages you want to keep. Then, click Save. If the page you want to delete is in the middle of the PDF, you may need to download two separate PDFs and then merge them.
You can also use PDF.Live, which requires no software to be downloaded and installed on your computer.
- Extract Pages from a PDF
- To extract pages from a PDF using Microsoft Print to PDF, first open the PDF you want to extract in a browser. You can drag the PDF to your browser to do this, or select Open With > “your browser of choice.”
- Then, select the pages you want to extract. You can write “3” if you want to extract page 3, “3-5” if you want to extract pages 3 through 5, or “3,5” if you just want to extract pages 3 and 5.
- Then, select print and those pages will save on your computer.
Extracting and Deleting PDF Pages FAQs
Why can’t I delete pages from a PDF?
The most common reason that you’ll be unable to remove pages or otherwise edit a PDF is if its permissions are set to read-only. Read-only means that the original creator has designated that only they can edit or change the document — everyone else can only read it.
If you’re the original owner of the PDF, you will need to edit the permissions of the PDF so that you can now edit it. To do this, find the PDF in your computer’s file explorer and right click it and select Properties. Then, navigate to the Security tab. If you’re the original owner of the document, you can change permissions by selecting Edit. You will see a multitude of options that you can allow or deny other users to access. If Write is set to Deny, select Allow and then press Apply.
Why does my PDF have a password?
If you aren’t the original owner of the PDF, you may need a password to access it and its permissions. You might be able to work around the password protection by selecting the Print option and then Save as PDF and save only the pages that you want. To learn more about securing a PDF and what permissions do, check out our article on locking, unlocking, protecting, and un-protecting PDF files.
You should know that sometimes, PDFs are locked due to copyright constraints — so you won’t be able to access them no matter what. This is usually with PDFs of e-books or other published documents.