PDF Productivity

How to Delete Pages From a PDF

Last updated · By the PDFSolution team

Scanners produce blank backs. Reports carry appendices nobody asked for. Contracts arrive with the wrong annexe attached. Deleting pages is the most common tidy-up job a PDF needs, and the one most likely to be done badly by re-printing the whole document.

One caution before you start: deleting a page removes it from the document, but it is not a redaction technique. If the concern is sensitive content rather than tidiness, see the note below.

Ready to do it now? Open the tool this guide describes.

Delete PDF pages

Step by step

  1. 1

    Open Delete PDF Pages and add the file

    Thumbnails of every page are generated locally so you can see what you are removing.

  2. 2

    Select the pages to remove

    Click the thumbnails, or type a range such as 3, 7-9, 14.

  3. 3

    Check the selection before running

    The count of remaining pages tells you immediately whether you have caught an extra page by mistake.

  4. 4

    Delete and download

    A new PDF is written with the remaining pages in their original order. The file you started from is not modified.

Useful tips

  • Printed page numbers often disagree with positions in the file. Trust the thumbnails, not the numbering on the page.
  • If more than half the document is going, extracting the pages you want to keep is quicker than deleting the rest.
  • Removing pages does not shrink an image-heavy PDF as much as people expect, because the remaining scans are still the same size. Compress afterwards if size is the goal.

Common problems

I deleted the wrong page
Start again from the original file — the tool never overwrites it. This is the main reason to keep the source until you have checked the result.
The file is password protected
Unlock it with the correct password first; an encrypted PDF cannot be modified.
I need to remove text, not a whole page
Use Redact PDF. Deleting a page removes the page; it does nothing about a paragraph you would rather nobody read.

Frequently asked questions

Is anything left behind in the file?
The document is rebuilt from the pages you keep, so removed pages are not carried along invisibly.
Are bookmarks affected?
Bookmarks pointing at deleted pages naturally have nothing left to point to. Check your navigation pane if the document relied on it.
Is my file uploaded?
No, page removal happens entirely in your browser.
Can I delete pages on a phone?
Yes. Thumbnail rendering is the heaviest part, so very long documents are slower on mobile.
Does deleting reduce quality?
No. The remaining pages are copied exactly as they were.

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