Today a consulting client had an issue that we’ve all done: He scanned a stack of paper intending to make it one PDF per sheet, but instead it went into one big PDF.
Since he didn’t want to re-scan, I broke down a few options for how to split a PDF using the built-in tools of Mac OSX. You can think of this as a companion piece to How To Combine PDFs Using Mac OSX Automator.
Option 1: Use Preview To Split Pages
Preview.app (the application you use to view PDFs and images) has some document management tools under the hood.
To split a file into pages using Preview:
- Open the file in Preview
- If you don’t see a list of pages on the right-hand side, click the Sidebar button near the search bar to open it
- Click and drag each page to your desktop or to a Finder window. It will then copy that page to its own PDF
Option 2: Use Automator To Split Pages
Much like combining PDF files to make one big one, you can split a PDF into separate pages using Automator.
There are a number of ways to do this of course, but in this example I will be making a Droplet. If you want to skip all this setup, I have attached my Droplet to the end of this post. It will hopefully work for you.
Ready? Here we go.
Start Automator
- In Finder, go to Applications and then start Automator, the cool little robot icon
Choose Application
- In the window that pops up, highlight Application and then hit Choose
Set Up The PDF Action
- In the Library section on the left, you’ll see a line for PDF. Choose that
- In the next column over, there is an option for PDF To Images. Click that and drag it into the the section on the right
- Choose where you want the PDF to be saved to by default
- Choose if you want the new PDFs to have the same name as the original, or if you want to change it.
- Choose if you want it to replace the original file
- I want the ability to change it on the fly if needed, so I hit Options and then check Show this action when the workflow runs.
Here is what this step looks like:
Nice work! Now you have your Automator action created. Go to File > Save As and save it either to your Desktop, your Applications folder, or anywhere else you desire.
Using The Droplet
You have just created a Droplet. This means that if you drag a PDF onto the icon, it will automatically run those actions you just created.
When you do this, if everything works well, a popup will come up asking where you want to save the PDFs and if you want to change the name. Choose and hit Continue.
Downloading The Droplet
As mentioned, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of setting this all up, you are welcome to use mine.
To use it, download the file to your computer, double-click it to Unzip it, and move the resulting “DSSplitPDF” file somewhere.
Once you’ve done that, follow the “Using The Droplet” instructions above.
I am sure you all have more tips to split PDFs, either on Mac or Windows. School us in the comments!
(Photo by recursion_see_recursion)
Related posts:
this is a great tool thanks for sharing. I have an excel file with dozens of sheets all needing to be emailed individually to separate people, this made the process so much easier. The only thing I need now is a way to rename each sheet individually during seperation.
Option 1 does NOT work. It becomes saved as a "picture clipping" and there is no image. I don't want to do Option 2 because it is too complicated. What else can I do? I'm probably going to have to rescan those pages. Thanks for nothing.
Not sure what to tell you. Just tried it and it worked for me as you can see in this screenshot: https://img.skitch.com/20110217-gt3ukwy58dccstphx….
But, you're welcome for nothing I guess!
I too just get a picture clipping. I like the functionality you mentioned and wished it worked that way, which would make sense. I'm using Preview 4.2 in OSX 10.5.8, maybe Preview works this way under Snow Leopard? I may try the Automator route, but that does seem a bit complicated for just extracting a single page from a multi-page PDF? Thanks for posting the info though.
Thanks for sharing the droplet. It works great to split the PDF in individual pages, with sequential numbering.
Dragging and dropping also creates a "picture clipping" for me (Mac OS X 10.5.8, Preview 4.2). However I believe it used to work in a prior version, and maybe it works again in a newer version. It wouldn't be the first time that Apple changes an undocumented feature.
Thanks for letting me know about the picture clippings thing. Wish I could replicate to figure out what is going on!
This is absolutely brilliant, thank you very much!
No worries Helen, glad it helped!
hey but it increases the size !!!
I tried doing it myself to no avail but yours worked just fine for me. Thanks.
Awesome, glad it helped!
Brilliant!!! Thanks for the great tool!
No worries gworks, glad it helped!
Hi Brooks, thanks for this, didn't realie that automator could do this so easily and I was really pleased when I ran across your article after trying several other either inferior or expensive alternatives.
snow leopard version 10.6.8 preview version 5.0.3. The simple 'Using Preview" option (select one page and drag to desktop) copies all pages of the pdf. But, selecting, then copying and pasting one page indeed works. Thanks so much for this post. One year old and still helping people!
Nice, thanks James927!
This is a great comment thread, and maybe you all can help me with my problem. I need to be able to search a huge, multiple-page pdf document for specific text, and then extract the pages from the resulting search to create a smaller, multiple-page pdf document.
Do you think I can create a workflow for this? Ideally, I'd love to be able to input different text for each search. I used to be able to use Preview 5.0 to do this natively, but version 5.5.1 has removed this option.
Thanks!
So let's say you search a 100 page PDF for the word “bunny”, and the word “bunny” appears on 5 pages. You'd want the action to kick out a 5-page PDF, with just the entire content of just those 5 pages?
This is a great comment thread, and maybe you all can help me with my problem. I need to be able to search a huge, multiple-page pdf document for specific text, and then extract the pages from the resulting search to create a smaller, multiple-page pdf document.
Do you think I can create a workflow for this? Ideally, I'd love to be able to input different text for each search. I used to be able to use Preview 5.0 to do this natively, but version 5.5.1 has removed this option.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for this. I have been searching how to split large PDFs in our office. Smaller batches can do a drop and drag of the ones to save but the larger files need this functionality of splitting. Your instructions were clear and easy and it works brilliantly…..except for one thing. I created a folder on the desktop to put the split files into. But despite setting the default to put all automator split files into the new folder, it defaults to desktop. There is a dropdown to chose a destination, but I have to go to "other" then pick the folder. It's three steps more. Any idea how to get my setup to keep the new folder as the destination folder?
Thanks!!!!!!
No problem Selly, glad it helped!
thanks!
Thanks so much. It's been REEEALLY helpful.
Great stefano, thanks for letting me know!
Thank you, this is awesome!
Awesome Deanna, glad it helped!
THANKS! You saved my morning and possibly my new job I was lucky to get.
Cool Amber, don't think I've ever saved a job before!
Thank you SO much. I had no idea what Automator did before this, but your instructions were completely clear – making the droplet was really easy once you knew what to press. I met a vital deadline because of your advice, couldn't be more grateful!