How to extract pages from a PDF on Mac
Four pages out of a forty-page report, at nine at night, without signing up for anything.
This is the single most common thing anyone needs to do with a PDF, and the thing most likely to end with someone uploading a confidential document to a website because it was the quickest route to four pages.
Extracting pages is free and always will be. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing is watermarked.
Extract, step by step
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Find the pages
The thumbnail rail is enough for a couple. Organize Pages is better when you need to see the document as a whole.
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Select them
Click one, ⇧-click for a run, ⌘-click for scattered pages. They do not have to be next to each other.
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Extract
The selected pages become a new document. The original is untouched.
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Save the new document
Name it something that will still make sense in a month — the page numbers will not be the ones it had in the original.
Extract, split, or delete?
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| These pages as their own document, original kept | Extract |
| The whole document divided into pieces | Split |
| These pages gone from this document | Delete |
| Pages from several documents as one | Merge |
Extracted pages bring their annotations with them, and they bring anything else on those pages — including things you may have forgotten are there, such as a header with a client name or a footer with an internal reference. Look at what you are sending before you send it, and redact anything that should not travel.
Extracting one page as a picture instead
If what the recipient needs is an image rather than a document — to drop into a slide, to put on a web page — exporting page images is the better route. It gives you a picture file per page rather than a PDF.
Why this is free
Plenty of tools put page extraction behind a subscription, or stamp a watermark across anything you produce without paying. Getting four pages out of a report is not a professional workflow, it is a Tuesday. It is free here, with no account and nothing added to the result.
Frequently asked questions
How do I save just a few pages of a PDF on a Mac?
Select them in the thumbnail rail or Organize Pages and extract them into a new document. The original is untouched, and it is free.
Can I extract pages that are not next to each other?
Yes. ⌘-click each one, then extract. They come out in document order as a single new file.
Does extracting change the original document?
No. Extraction copies the pages out; deleting is what removes them.
Do annotations come with the extracted pages?
Yes — and so does everything else on those pages, including headers and footers you may have forgotten about. Check before sending.
How do I get one page as an image instead?
Export page images, which produces a picture file per page rather than a PDF.