Extract pages from a PDF

Extracting copies, it does not cut

Extracting leaves the PDF you opened exactly as it was on disk. The new file holds copies of the picked pages. Because they are copied rather than redrawn, their text can still be searched and selected, and scanned pages keep every pixel.

The order is the document's own. Ctrl-click page 9 and then page 2, and the new PDF still starts with page 2. For another order, drag the thumbnails into place before saving: the extract follows the page bar as it stands. Nothing you do in the editor touches the file on disk until you save, and saving always asks for a name and a folder.

That makes it easy to prepare an extract. Turn a scan the right way up, sign the page, highlight the line that matters, and those changes go into the new file with the page.

Extract, split, delete or merge?

The last row is extraction across files. Open two or three PDFs at once and all their pages share the page bar. Pick from any of them and save the picks as one new document, in the order they sit in the bar.

Not sure which you need? Extracting is the safe default: it never touches the original, so you can always go back to it and pick again.

Typical extracts

• Proof of income or address: a landlord or a lender wants one statement page, not the whole year.
• The pages a class or a client needs from a long handout, manual or catalog.
• A signature page to return on its own after signing.
• One form out of a bundle that arrived as a single scanned file.
• Evidence for a claim: the two pages of a long policy or lease that cover the problem, sent to an insurer or a landlord.
• A recipe, a route map or a timetable taken out of a long guide to keep on its own.

The extract is made on your computer, so the rest of the document, often the private part, is never sent anywhere. If Page numbers is switched on, the extract is numbered on its own, starting from 1.

Before you send an extract

A few checks make an extract easier for whoever receives it:

• The count. The menu item says how many pages are picked, such as Save these 3 pages as a new PDF…, so a missed page shows up before you save.
• The name. “(part)” will mean nothing a week later. Name the file for what it is, such as “Lease, signature page” or “Bank statement, March”.
• The context. A single page taken out of a long document can puzzle the reader. Type a short note at the top with Text, or stamp the pages COPY when they are an excerpt of an original.
• The format. If the person asked for a picture rather than a PDF, save the pages as JPG files instead.

Then open the saved file once from its folder. It holds only the picked pages, in the order they had in the editor.