How to extract pages from a PDF
Sometimes you only need a few pages from a big PDF — one form from a packet, a single chapter, or the pages you're allowed to share. Extracting pulls exactly those pages into a new file and leaves the original alone.
Steps
- Open Extract Pages.
- Drop in your PDF.
- Enter the pages you want, like
2,5-7,10. - Download a new PDF containing only those pages.
Extract vs split vs remove
Use Extract Pages to keep a few pages, Remove Pages to drop a few, and Split PDF to break a document into several files at once.
Keeping versus removing
Extracting is built around what you want to keep, which makes it the quickest route when the pages you need are only a few out of many. You name the pages to save and Slate copies them into a fresh document, leaving the original exactly as it was. Page numbers are counted from one, and you can list several ranges at once, such as 1,4-6,9, to gather pages that are scattered through the file into a single tidy result.
Common problems and how to fix them
- You ended up with the whole document: double-check the range you typed, since an empty or overly broad range keeps everything.
- The wrong pages appeared: numbering starts at 1 and any cover or title page counts toward it, so confirm the numbers in the viewer.
- You actually wanted to delete a few pages: that is the opposite job, so use Remove Pages, which keeps everything except what you name.
- The pages you need are spread out: list multiple ranges separated by commas to collect them in one step.
What to do next
Extracted pages are a normal PDF, so you can feed them straight into another tool. Merge PDF combines your extracted pages with pages from other documents, which is handy for building a packet from several sources. If instead you need to break a long document into many parts rather than pull out one, Split PDF is the better fit. None of these steps uploads your file.