Split PDF, Separate Files, Specify Pages, API Tool

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Request

POST

Headers

Api-Key

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Response-Type

Poll for the status of a request by ID. Request IDs can be found in the JSON response of POST requests sent to any pdfRest endpoint.

Required Parameters

file

File to be uploaded and split into new files.

Alphanumeric ID (UUID) of existing file on server to be split into new files.

Optional Parameters

pages[]

Page or range of pages to include in output file. This parameter may be specified multiple times to create multiple output files. If this parameter is not specified, an output file will be created for each page of the input file containing only that page.

output

Name of the generated output file, without extension

Code

curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/split-pdf" \ 
  -H "Accept: application/json" \ 
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -H "Api-Key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" \

Response

The response for your API Call will display here.

Once you've sent your POST request and received a valid response, you can download your output file using the output URL.

Build Your Solution

You have document processing problems, we have Solutions. Explore the many ways pdfRest can align your documents with your business objectives.

Browse all solutions

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Control your Backend with pdfRest API Toolkit Self-Hosted

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Extract Pages from a PDF to Isolate Key Data

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Delete Pages from a PDF to Sanitize Documents

Why is pdfRest the best API to split PDF?

pdfRest offers the best solution for splitting a PDF input into multiple PDF outputs, because it supports flexible page ranges, optimized content, and deleting or exporting pages.

Page Range Power

Easily split a 100-page PDF into 100 one-page PDFs, or pick and choose each output PDF you’d like to create from the original PDF source. Maybe you need pages 1-10 in a file, pages 2,5,15-20 in another file, all the even page numbers in a third file, and pages 25-50 in reverse order in a fourth file. No problem - every possible permutation of pages can be saved out to any number of target output files with one single API Call.

Optimized Content

When pages are split out from PDFs with many PDF tools in the wild, some of the “removed” content can actually be left behind in the file. This might not appear to users when viewing the document, but a rogue embedded font can easily linger around without serving a purpose for the pages that remain in the new, smaller file.

pdfRest to the rescue! Every split-out PDF created by the Split PDF tool is optimized to contain only the relevant content for the pages in that file. Smaller file sizes, faster user experience.

Export or Delete Pages

pdfRest’s Split PDF tool can be used to save many output files, but it also can be used to simply save one output PDF with just the page or pages you need. This allows you to isolate just the content you need in a streamlined document.

Export all the pages you need into your one output file, or select all pages other than the ones you’d like to delete. The Split PDF tool serves many functions.

Check out other videos

Start from Code Examples

See more code examples in our GitHub repository

Need more help?

Start with a Tutorial for step-by-step guidance

How to Delete Pages from PDF Files in .NET with C#

How to Delete Pages from PDF Files with JavaScript in NodeJS

How to Delete Pages from PDF Files with PHP

How to Delete Pages from PDF Files with Python

How to Extract Pages from PDF Files in .NET with C#

How to Extract Pages from PDF Files with cURL

How to Extract Pages from PDF Files with JavaScript in NodeJS

How to Extract Pages from PDF Files with PHP

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Customize Your Solution

Learn about the parameters for this tool to create your custom solution.

File

The file parameter allows you to select two or more local PDF files to be uploaded to pdfRest’s processing server.

See Documentation

The id parameter allows you to submit a resource ID generated by one of our API Tools. Each of our API Tools assigns a unique resource ID to your output file(s), allowing you to chain requests together without having to download intermediate files between requests.

See Documentation

Pages

The pages[] parameter allows you to identify pages and/or page ranges that you would like to split into one or more new PDFs. This is a versatile parameter that allows you to precisely construct your output document(s) by specifying the exact pages, page order, and number of documents that you want.

Each instance of pages[] creates one new output PDF containing the specified pages. For example, the values “3”, “4-10”, and “2,3,4” will create three new PDFs, each containing the pages that were specified for that particular document.

If a page number is included more than once (e.g., “1,2,3,3,4,5”), then the page will be duplicated in the output file. Pages may also be reordered (e.g., “1,5,3,2,4”), and page ranges may be reversed by listing the higher page number first (e.g., “2,4,9-5,12”).

pages[] also accepts a few keywords to quickly identify pages to split. The keywords “even” and “odd” will select only those pages to split into a new PDF, and the keyword “last” may be used to represent the final page of the input PDF.

One trick using pages[] is to effectively delete one or more pages from a document. For example, the value “1-5,7-last” will create a new document without page 6.

(If pages[] is omitted entirely, the default behavior is to split the input PDF into one document for each page.)

See Documentation

Output

The output parameter lets you set a filename (without extension) for your new PDFs. Each filename will be appended with a number in counting order. (e.g., “split-doc” will yield split-doc_1.pdf, split-doc_2.pdf, etc.)

See Documentation