How to remove pages from a PDF in five steps
- Open Remove pages from PDF and choose the file, or drop it on the page.
- Wait a moment while thumbnails of every page appear.
- Mark the pages to take out: click a page, hold Shift to mark a run, or type the numbers, like
2, 5-8, 12-. - Check the count of pages that will stay and the preview of the new file.
- Press the button and download the new PDF.
The file is handled in your browser, so a contract, a payslip or a medical report is never uploaded. There is no account and no watermark. How to check that for any tool takes two minutes.
Three ways to mark pages
You can mix them freely, because the thumbnail grid and the text box stay in step.
- Click. Click a page to mark it for removal. Hold Shift and click another to mark everything between them.
- Shortcuts. Odd, Even, Invert and Clear mark pages in bulk. Invert is the quickest way to keep a few pages: mark the ones you want, then invert.
- Type. Write pages and ranges separated by commas.
12-means page 12 to the end, which is handy for dropping appendices.
Marked pages are dimmed rather than hidden, and one click brings them back. Nothing is saved until you press the button, so you can experiment safely.
Delete a page in PDF on a Mac
Preview can delete a page directly: open the PDF, show the thumbnail sidebar, click the page you want gone and press Delete, then save. It works well for one page, but Preview saves over the file you opened unless you export a copy, so duplicate the original first if it matters. For several pages or for a visual check before saving, the browser tool is calmer: it never touches the original and shows the new file before you download.
Delete pages from a PDF on Windows
Windows has no built-in PDF page remover. A trick that works in Edge and Chrome is to open the PDF, press Print, set the pages you want to keep, and choose Save as PDF as the printer. It does the job, but it re-creates the file through the print engine, which can drop links and change how the document looks. A dedicated page remover copies the pages you keep as they are, so text, images and fonts stay exactly the same.
On iPhone and Android
On a phone, open the page in Safari or Chrome, tap to choose the PDF from Files or your cloud drive, tap the pages to remove, and download the result. Tapping thumbnails on a small screen is easier than typing page numbers, but typing works too. Very large PDFs are limited by your phone's memory, so for a big scan, a computer is more reliable.
Blank, cover and signature pages
The pages people most often want to remove are predictable:
- Blank pages, common in scans made from double sided originals. You choose them in the grid, the tool does not detect blanks by itself, so scan the thumbnails and click the empty ones.
- Cover sheets and fax pages added by a scanner or a sender.
- Signature or ID pages that should be removed before you share the rest of a document.
- Confidential pages in a file you are about to forward.
Before you share the new file, read the preview carefully and open the result once. Pages that stay are copied as they are, which includes what is stored in them, such as the camera details inside a photo. The file also carries details of its own, such as an author name, so read what your PDF reveals about you before you share it. Removing a page removes it from the new file for good, but your original still has it, so keep the original somewhere safe and do not send it by mistake.
How to save one page of a PDF
Saving, extracting or exporting a single page from a PDF is the same job seen from the other side. There are two good ways to do it here.
- Remove everything else. In the page remover, mark all pages except the one you want (click Odd or Even, or type a range such as
1-4, 6-) and save. The result is a one page PDF. - Split into single pages. Split PDF into pages turns every page into its own PDF, named like
report-page-5.pdf, and lets you download any one page from the list, or all of them as a ZIP.
The second is better when you want several single pages, or are not sure which page you need yet. The first is better when you only want one result and want to see it before you download. Neither tool will remove every page, because a PDF needs at least one. The guide to splitting a PDF into pages covers the second route in full.
What happens to page numbers, links and bookmarks
The new file is numbered from 1 again in a PDF viewer. Numbers printed on the pages themselves do not change, so if you remove page 3 from a document, the page that says 4 will now be page 3 in the viewer. Check any contents list or cross references that refer to page numbers. To print fresh numbers on the new file, see how to add page numbers to a PDF.
Links to websites stay. Bookmarks and links that jump to another page of the document are dropped, since the pages they pointed to may be gone. Highlights, comments, each page's size, rotation and crop are kept.
Can the file get smaller?
Usually yes, when the removed pages held pictures or scans, because the new file simply has fewer of them. Removing text pages makes little difference. If the result is still too big for an upload form, run it through Reduce PDF size. And if the pages are in the wrong order rather than too many, Reorder PDF pages is the tool for that.
What it cannot do
PDFs protected with a password or permission settings are not supported, because ClipLime does not decrypt files. It also does not edit text on a page, black out parts of a page or add pages from another document. To add a page, merge the pieces instead, as the guide to combining PDF files shows.