Delete pages from a PDF

Key takeaways

• Right pages: all 4 deletions left exactly the other pages, with the same sizes and text (pdf.js).
• Deleted pages are not hidden inside: the page objects in each result equaled the pages kept (5/5, 65/65, 229/229, 39/39).
• A form page can be most of the file: removing page 1 of W-9 cut 141 KB to 38.0 KB (-73%).
• One scanned page is small: removing 1 of 230 pages saved 150 KB (-1.2%); 2 of 67 scanned pages saved 106 KB.
• The tool refuses to delete every page, and tells you if a page number is outside the document.

Measured: four deletions

The size change depends on what the pages held: deleting page 1 of the 6 page W-9 cut it from 141 KB to 38.0 KB (-73%), the last 2 pages of a 41 page law cut it by 43%, and 1 page of a 230 page scan changed 12.5 MB to 12.3 MB (-1.2%). Every result had the right pages, sizes and text.

Measured with the tool's own code in Node on six public domain US government PDFs: IRS Forms 1040 and W-9, Public Law 118-5, Senate Document 105-10, House Document 110-50, and a 230 page scanned NASA technical report (12.5 MB). Each result was opened with pdf.js, which compared the page count, every page size and the text of every page with the source pages.

Deleting pages removes the pages and what only they used. Fonts that other pages share stay. That is why a scan changes by the size of its page, and a form by a lot when the deleted page held its field boxes.

What happens to the rest

After a deletion the remaining pages keep their order and numbering restarts at 1. The title in the document properties and the form field list are not kept: the W-9 had 23 form fields and the result 0, and its 23 field boxes were all on the deleted page.

Deleted pages must not stay in the file

Copying a page can copy everything it points to. A form box or a signature field points to other pages, so a careless tool can produce a PDF that shows 39 pages but still contains the other 2 inside, readable by anyone who looks at the file structure. We hit exactly this in our first tests, with a whole 41 page law inside a one page extract. The tool now cuts those pointers and drops what cannot be reached, and every result is checked by counting the page objects in the file against the pages shown.

About the format

A PDF file is a set of numbered objects: pages, fonts, images and the references between them. Operations that copy pages copy the objects they refer to. Wikipedia lists the filters a PDF uses to store data, including FlateDecode (deflate, for text and lossless images) and DCTDecode (JPEG), which is why scanned pages are large and text pages small.

Typing the pages

• 2 deletes page 2.
• 4-6 deletes pages 4, 5 and 6.
• 9- deletes page 9 and everything after it.
• Combine with commas: 1, 3-4, 10-.
• The tool will not remove every page.

Free tools:Extract pages from a PDFSplit a PDFMerge PDF files

What it does not do

• It does not black out text on a page you keep; use a redaction tool for that.
• It does not change your original file.
• It does not remove the Exif data of pictures inside the PDF.

Delete, extract or split?

Delete and extract give the same kind of file; which to use is only a matter of which list is shorter to type.

Worked examples from our tests

• IRS Form W-9: page 1 deleted, 141 KB → 38.0 KB in 46 ms; the result has 5 pages.
• Senate Document 105-10: pages 2 and 3 deleted, 3.06 MB → 2.95 MB in 32 ms; the result has 65 pages.
• NASA technical report (scan): page 1 deleted, 12.5 MB → 12.3 MB in 179 ms; the result has 229 pages.
• Public Law 118-5: pages 40 and 41 deleted, 285 KB → 164 KB in 20 ms; the result has 39 pages.

Questions people ask

Related

Sources and how we checked

1. Wikipedia: PDF (filters) (read 2026-10-10)
2. PDF.js (Mozilla): the reader used to check every PDF (read 2026-10-10)

Reviewed October 10, 2026. The measurements ran the tool's own code and then opened every PDF with pdf.js and pdf-lib to compare pages, sizes, text and picture bytes. The files and results are in data/seo/hub/evidence/2026-10-10/pdf.