How to split PDF
Do you need to extract some pages from a PDF document but, at least that you know, none of the programs you have installed on your computer allow you to do this? Don’t worry, you won’t have to buy one of those overpriced professional PDF file management software.
There are now many free applications and even some Web services that allow you to merge and split PDFs with disarming simplicity. In short, to do what you need you do not need to buy paid programs or study the operation of the software to be used.
You just have to read the guide that I am about to offer you, choose the solution that seems to you best suited to your needs and use it to split your PDF files quickly and easily. So, are you ready to get started?
Separate a PDF online
Doesn’t the PDF you have to split into several parts weigh a lot? Then you can avoid installing new software on your PC by relying on SmallPDF , a completely free online service that allows you to convert and edit PDF documents directly from your browser. It does not require registration or “follow” on social networks, does not have stringent upload limits and works with all the most popular navigation programs.
To use it, connected to its main page, click on the Choose file button and select the file to operate on. Alternatively, you can drag the document directly into the box that says Drag PDF Here or click on the Dropbox and Google Drive logos and select the PDF to split from one of these well-known cloud storage services.
When the thumbnails of the pages that make up the selected file appear, type in the text field at the bottom the range of pages to be saved (e.g. 1-6 to extract pages 1 to 6) or click on the first page to include in the document output, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click on the thumbnail of the last page to save.
When the operation is complete, press the Split PDF button , wait a few seconds and click the Download file button to download your PDF. Repeat the operation for the second part of the document (or the subsequent parts of the PDF, if you want to divide it into more than two parts) and that’s it.
Separate a PDF on Windows
If you have to work on particularly large documents, or in any case you prefer to use traditional applications instead of online ones, I suggest you take a look at PDFtk for Windows which does only two things (in its free basic version) and does them in a great: merge and split PDFs .
To download the program on your PC, connect to its official website and click on the Download PDFtk Free button . Then start the installation package called pdftk_free-xx-win-setup.exe and click first on Yes and then on Next .
Then put the check mark next to the item I accept the agreement to accept the conditions of use of the software and complete the setup by first clicking on Next for four consecutive times and then on Install and Finish .
When installation is complete, start PDFtk, press the Add PDF button on the left and select the document to be processed. Next, double click in the Pages to copy text field (the one located on the right), type the range of pages to be kept in the output PDF (e.g. 1-5 to extract pages 1 to 5) and press the Create button PDF to save the final document. Repeat the operation for all the “portions” of the file you want to create and that’s it.
Warning: do not add more than one PDF at a time in PDFtk, otherwise the documents will be merged. You can use the two functions together – splitting pages and merging different documents – if you want to create a PDF that includes portions of multiple existing documents.
Separate a PDF on Mac
Do you have a Mac? I have excellent news for you. You can split your PDFs without resorting to any external application or service: you can do it all with Preview , OS X’s default software for managing images and, precisely, PDF documents.
To better understand what I mean, open the PDF you want to divide into several parts, call the print command from the File menu (or by pressing the combination of keys cmd + p on the computer keyboard) and put the check mark next to the item From in the window that opens.
At this point, fill in the two text fields located next to the word From with the numbers of the pages you want to use as the beginning and end of the first PDF to be generated (e.g. 1 and 5 to extrapolate the first five pages of the source document) , click on the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left and select the item Save as PDF from the latter.
Then repeat the operation for all parts of the PDF you want to split and you will get the desired result without resorting to third-party solutions. More comfortable than that?
