PDF Splitter Online - Split a PDF into Separate Files

Split a PDF where you can see the break

Jobsixo is a PDF splitter online that shows you the pages before you cut. Every page of your document appears as a thumbnail, you tick the page a part should end on, and the document is divided there. There is no list of page ranges to type and no counting down a long scan to work out where chapter two starts.

If the break you need is regular rather than specific, you can instead give a number and have the tool split a PDF into multiple files of that many pages each. Between the two methods you can separate PDF pages into chapters, into fixed-size chunks for a portal with an upload limit, or into one file per page.

How to split a PDF, step by step

1. 1
   Drop a PDF on the box that says Drop a PDF here, or click to browse. The page thumbnails load as you scroll, so a long file opens quickly.
2. 2
   Decide how to cut. To cut at specific places, click the thumbnail of each page that should be the last page of a part. A tick on page 3 of a ten-page file produces pages 1 to 3 and pages 4 to 10. Select all and Clear selection help when many ticks are needed, and Undo steps back.
3. 3
   To cut at regular intervals, type a number in the Pages per file box and press the button beside it. It reads Split every page when the number is 1, and Split every 15 pages when the number is 15.
4. 4
   If you ticked pages, press the large button at the foot of the board, which reads Split into N file(s).
5. 5
   Download the parts one by one from the list, or press Download all (with the part count) as a ZIP to take them in a single archive.

Understanding what a tick means

A tick means cut after this page. That is the one rule to remember, and it explains everything the tool does. Tick page 12 and page 28 of a 40-page file and the cuts fall after those pages, giving three parts.

The page numbers are positions in the document as it stands, not whatever numbering is printed on the paper. If a report starts with a cover and two pages of contents, the page printed as 1 may be the fourth thumbnail. Go by the thumbnails and the position number under each one.

Ticking the last page does nothing, because a cut after the final page leaves nothing on the other side. Tick only the last page and the tool tells you the ticks do not cut the document anywhere. With no ticks at all it asks you to tick the pages or use the every-page button.

Worked example: a 40-page bundle cut at two places

A 40-page application bundle holds a 12-page form, 16 pages of supporting certificates and 12 pages of annexures. Tick page 12 and page 28, then press Split into 2 file(s).

The page counts add up: 12 + 16 + 12 = 40, so nothing is lost and nothing is repeated. Notice that two ticks gave three files, and that the button label says 2 files. The number on the button counts your ticks, not the files you will receive, so read the list under the board for the real result. Each entry shows the file name, its page count and its size, which makes it easy to confirm that part 2 holds 16 pages.

Splitting into equal parts for upload limits

Government and college portals often cap a single upload at a few megabytes. If a 120-page scan weighs 30 MB and the cap is 5 MB, you need parts that average well under 5 MB. Setting Pages per file to 15 gives 120 / 15 = 8 parts, averaging 30 / 8 = 3.75 MB each.

That is an average. Pages with photographs weigh more than pages with plain text, so one part may be heavier than the rest. The download list shows each size, so check the largest before you upload and lower the number if it is still over the cap. When the page count does not divide evenly the last part is shorter: with 40 pages and 15 per file you get pages 1 to 15, 16 to 30 and 31 to 40.

If a number is too big the tool says so rather than doing nothing. Asking for parts of 40 pages from a 40-page file would leave the file whole, so it asks for a smaller number. Values are rounded to whole pages and anything below 1 is treated as 1.

How the cutting works

The page images you see are drawn by pdf.js, the same engine browsers use to display PDFs. They are only a guide. The cutting itself is done by pdf-lib, which opens your original file, creates a new empty document for each part and copies the chosen pages into it. Page content, fonts and images are carried over without being redrawn, so quality and selectable text are untouched.

Because every part is a standalone document, each carries its own copy of any font or image that its pages share. The parts can therefore add up to a little more than the original file. Bookmarks and fillable form fields from the source do not follow the pages into the new files. Your original is never changed; it stays wherever you opened it from.

Reading the list of parts

When the split finishes, a row appears for every part. Each row gives the file name, the number of pages and the size, followed by a Download link. The names carry the page range, so part-2-pages-13-28.pdf tells you at a glance that it holds pages 13 to 28 of the original. In every-page mode the names are simpler, page-1.pdf, page-2.pdf and so on, numbered by the original position.

Check two numbers before you download anything. Add up the page counts and compare the total with the page count of your source; if they match, no page was dropped. Then look at the largest size. If you are splitting to satisfy an upload limit, that is the figure that has to fit. A part full of photographs can be several times heavier than a part of typed pages, so equal page counts do not guarantee equal sizes.

Prepare the document first

A few minutes of tidying saves a second pass. Pages that arrived sideways are easier to fix before cutting, because a turned page stays turned in whichever part it lands in; Rotate PDF does that. Blank sheets that a scanner slipped in make the cut points harder to judge, and they inflate the parts, so take them out first.

Think about the rule you are splitting for. If the portal wants each certificate as its own file, every-page mode is right only when each certificate is a single page. A two-sided certificate scanned as two pages needs ticks instead, one after each pair, so the front and back stay together. Looking at the thumbnails for that takes seconds and is exactly what the board is for.

Finally, think about names. The tool picks part-1-pages-1-12.pdf style names, and many portals reject spaces or long names. Rename the downloaded files to something short and plain before uploading, and keep a note of which part holds what, because the generic names say nothing about the contents.

Splitting scans and mixed page sizes

Scanned documents behave like any other PDF here, because the tool never looks at the content of a page, only at its position. A 100-page scan of photographs cuts exactly like a 100-page typed report. The thumbnails are small renderings made for the board and are not saved into your parts.

Documents with mixed page sizes split without trouble as well. Each page keeps its own dimensions, so an A3 drawing in the middle of an A4 report stays A3 in whichever part receives it. If you need the parts to be brought to one size afterwards, that is a job for a different tool, since splitting does not scale pages.

Where splitting is useful

• Portal upload limits: divide a large scan into parts that each fit under the limit.
• Email: send a long document in two or three messages when a mailbox rejects big attachments.
• Certificates in one scan: if a scanner produced one PDF with a page per certificate, every-page mode returns a separate file for each, ready to attach to different forms. The exam documents tool is the place to then fit each file to a form's rules.
• Chapters and sections: hand one chapter of a thesis or manual to a reviewer without sending the rest.
• Statements and bills: break a year of bank statements into months.

Split, extract or remove: which tool

Splitting produces several files that together contain every page. If you want only some pages, a different tool fits better.

• To keep pages 5 to 10 and nothing else, use Extract Pages. It returns one file of the pages you tick.
• To throw pages away and keep one file, use Remove Pages.
• To join parts back together, or to join the parts of several splits, use Merge PDF.
• To reorder or turn pages as well as cut, Organize PDF edits the whole document on one board.

Common mistakes

The usual error is ticking the first page of the next part instead of the last page of the current one. If the second part is meant to start at page 13, tick page 12. A second is reading the button label as a file count, as described above. A third is forgetting that the parts are downloaded separately: until you press Download, the files exist only in your browser tab, so do not close it early.

If the tool reports that the PDF is password protected, unlock it first with Unlock PDF and then split the unlocked copy. If it reports damage, run Repair PDF and split what comes back.

Limits and privacy

A PDF can be up to 100 MB and 500 pages. The tool needs at least two pages to cut, and it works on one file at a time. It has no box for typing page ranges, and it does not offer odd-only or even-only pages; for a single stretch of pages use extraction instead. If the parts are still too large, reduce the file size of each one.

Everything happens inside your browser tab. The file is not sent to a Jobsixo server, no account is needed, and the parts are built in memory and handed to you as downloads. When several parts are downloaded together the ZIP is built on your device too, and it stores the PDFs without compressing them again, which keeps it quick.