PDFs and conversion
How to split a PDF or extract pages on a Mac
Pull pages out of a PDF with Preview or the Print dialog, split it into single pages with Automator or Shortcuts, and how Orrel extracts and splits.
You need page 4 of a 30-page bank statement for a form, or a scanned bundle needs to go back to being separate documents. macOS can do both with Preview, as long as you know which methods change the original.
Extract pages in Preview
- Open the PDF in Preview and choose View › Thumbnails.
- Click the page you want. ⌘-click to add more pages, or ⇧-click to select a run.
- Drag the selection out of the sidebar onto the desktop or into a Finder window.
Preview writes a new PDF containing those pages. The original is untouched. If the drag lands as something other than a PDF, check that you dragged the thumbnails, not the page itself.
A page range through Print
To pull out a run such as pages 5 to 12, choose File › Print, set Pages to the range, then open the PDF menu at the bottom of the dialog and choose Save as PDF. This works from any app, not just Preview. It rebuilds the pages, so links and form fields may not survive.
Keep some pages by deleting the rest
Choose File › Duplicate, then in the copy select the thumbnails you do not want and press Delete. Save the copy. Deleting in the original changes it, because Preview saves as you go.
Split into single pages
Preview has no "split every page" command. Two built-in tools do:
- Automator. The Split PDF action makes a single-page PDF from each page. Make a Quick Action that receives PDF files in Finder, add Split PDF, and choose where to save.
- Shortcuts. Make a shortcut that receives PDFs, add Split PDF Into Pages, then Save File. Turn on Use as Quick Action so it appears when you Control-click a PDF.
How Orrel does it
Open a PDF in Orrel's PDF workspace and every page appears as a thumbnail.
- Extract Selected. Select the pages you want and choose Extract Selected. They are saved, in the order shown, as a new PDF beside the original with "extract" in its name. Control-click a single page for Extract This Page.
- Split. Saves every page as its own PDF in a new folder named after the file with "pages" added, numbered in order.
- Across files. Drop in several PDFs, and you can select pages from any of them, reorder and rotate them, then extract or save them as one PDF.
- From a right-click. Split into Pages is also in the conversion ring, without opening the workspace.
- Originals untouched. Every result is a new file; nothing is saved over a PDF you opened.
Where Orrel stops
Orrel selects pages by clicking, not by typing a range or splitting every N pages; for a long document, Preview's Print dialog is quicker for a page range. It does not split by bookmarks or file size. A password-protected PDF has to be opened with its password first. As with merging, links and fillable fields may not come through every rearrangement.
Questions
Does extracting pages change the original PDF?
Dragging thumbnails out of Preview and printing a page range do not. Deleting pages in Preview does, because Preview saves changes to the open file. Choose File › Duplicate before you delete anything.
Will links and form fields survive?
Usually the visible page content comes across exactly, but interactive parts such as links to other pages, bookmarks and fillable fields may not. The Print dialog method is the most likely to flatten them.
Can I split a password-protected PDF?
Not until it is opened with its password. Preview and Orrel both ask for it. Once open, you can extract pages into a new, unprotected PDF.