Delete Pages From a PDF

How to use it#

Drop a PDF onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
Press Remove under any page you want gone. To take out several at once, type them in the box above the pages, such as 3-5, 9, and press Remove beside it.
To remove blank pages, press Find blank pages. The blank ones are added to the box and marked To remove in the grid; take out any you want to keep, then press Remove.
Put a page back from the Removed list if you change your mind.
Download the PDF. The original file is left as it was.

Removing a page is not the same as hiding it#

A page taken out here is not in the downloaded file at all. The new document is built by copying across only the pages still in the list, so a removed page leaves nothing behind: no blank space, no hidden layer, and nothing a PDF reader could show by mistake.

That matters when the reason for removing a page is that someone should not see it. A cover sheet with internal notes, a page of bank details, an appendix meant for one recipient only: once it is out of the list, it is out of the file.

What survives on the pages you keep#

The pages that stay are copied as they are, not redrawn. Text stays selectable and searchable, images keep their original quality, and web links on a page still work. The file usually gets smaller by roughly the share of the pages that went.

Two things do not come across. Bookmarks from the original are left behind, because the new file is built from the pages alone, and page numbers printed on the pages themselves do not renumber, because they are part of what is drawn on the page rather than something the file keeps track of.

Removing blank pages from a scanned PDF#

A document fed through a scanner picks up blank pages: the empty backs of single sided sheets in a double sided scan, separator sheets, and the page a printer adds to make up the count. Find blank pages looks at every page and adds the empty ones to the Pages to remove box, and each of them is marked To remove on its thumbnail.

Nothing is deleted at that point. Look along the marked pages first, take any you want to keep out of the box, and press Remove. Pages you typed into the box before the search stay in it, so you can pick the blank pages and a few others in one go.

A scan of an empty sheet is rarely pure white. It has a grey or cream cast, specks of dust, show-through from the other side, and often a shadow along one edge or the dark circles of punch holes. The search is built to call those pages blank anyway, and to keep a page with even one short line of print on it.

Seeing the pages rather than typing numbers#

Removing pages by number works until the numbers stop matching. A document whose printed page numbering starts after a cover and a contents page has page 1 somewhere around the file's page 3, and typing a range is where the wrong page goes missing.

Every page is shown here as a thumbnail with the position it will have in the new file and the page it was in the original, so the choice is made by looking at the page itself. The list of removed pages stays on screen until you download, and any of them can be put back.

A long run is quicker to type than to click. The box above the pages takes positions such as 12-40, or 30- for everything from page 30 to the end, and counts by the number in the corner of each thumbnail, which is where the page sits now. If you only want to keep a few pages out of many, the PDF splitter saves just those pages as a file of their own.

Frequently asked questions#

Is the PDF uploaded anywhere?

No. The document is read and rebuilt by your own browser, in this tab. Nothing is sent to a server. The only thing the page fetches is its own code for reading PDFs, which your browser's network panel will show.

How do I delete several pages at once?

Type them into the Pages to remove box above the thumbnails and press Remove. Commas separate pages and a dash makes a range, so 2, 7-9, 15 takes out five pages in one go. The numbers are the positions shown in the corner of each thumbnail, and the box empties once they are gone, since the pages after them have moved up.

How do I delete blank pages from a PDF?

Press Find blank pages. The empty pages are added to the Pages to remove box and marked To remove in the grid. Check them, delete from the box any page you want to keep, press Remove, and download the PDF. If the search misses one, press Remove under it or add its number to the box.

How does it decide a page is blank?

Each page is drawn small and its pixels are compared with the paper around them, so a grey or yellowed scan is judged against its own shade rather than against white. A pixel counts as ink only when it is clearly darker than the paper and touches other dark pixels, which ignores dust. A thin band along each edge is left out, where scanner shadows, border lines, and punch holes sit. A page is blank when almost nothing is left.

What can make it choose the wrong pages?

Usually marks too faint to count. A page carrying only a pale watermark, a very light pencil note, or a stamp that has faded can be called blank, and so can a page whose only mark is a page number printed right at the edge, or a single short word in small print. It can also miss a blank page, such as a scan with a heavy smudge in the middle. That is why it only selects the pages: look along the marked ones before pressing Remove. A black or dark page is never called blank.

Can I delete pages from a PDF on an iPhone or Android phone?

Yes, in the phone’s own browser, with nothing to install. Tap the box and choose the PDF from Files or Downloads, then press Remove under each page you want gone, or type their numbers into the Pages to remove box. Dragging pages is for a computer, but the arrows under each page move it on a phone. The new copy downloads like any other file.

Can I undo removing a page?

Yes. Every removed page is listed under Removed with its own Put it back button, which returns it to where it was among the pages that are left. Undo takes back the last change of any kind, and Start again returns the whole document to how it arrived, which Undo can take back too.

Can I change the order or turn a page as well?

Yes. Each page has arrows to move it earlier or later, and on a computer you can also drag a page to where it should go. The ↻ button under a page turns it a quarter clockwise. Removing, reordering, and turning can be combined freely, and the download reflects all three. To turn many pages at once, the PDF rotator has a box for a page range.

Why does a password protected PDF not open?

Its pages are encrypted, so they cannot be read until the password is removed. If you have the password, the PDF password remover will produce an unlocked copy you can bring back here. A file that opens freely but is locked against printing or copying is refused as well, and the remover lifts that only with the file’s owner password.