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How to delete pages from a PDF

Short answer: on a Mac, open the PDF in Preview, show the thumbnails, select the pages and press Delete. Anywhere else, the quickest free trick is to print the pages you want to keep to a new PDF. A page tool such as PDF24 Creator on Windows or the Quire PDF extension in Chrome removes pages without printing.

Updated 15 October 2026. Mac steps follow Apple’s Preview guide; print steps follow Microsoft’s Edge help.

Delete pages with Preview on a Mac

  1. Keep the original if you need it

    Preview saves changes automatically, so choose File › Duplicate and work on the copy if you want the full PDF later.

  2. Show the pages

    Choose View › Thumbnails, or View › Contact Sheet to see every page at once.

  3. Select the pages to remove

    Click a page. Command-click to select more than one.

  4. Delete them

    Press the Delete key, or choose Edit › Delete. Apple notes that any annotations on those pages go with them.

  5. Save

    If you’re working on a duplicate, choose File › Save.

The print-to-PDF trick (Chrome, Edge, any computer)

To delete pages without installing anything, print the pages you want to keep to a new PDF. Press Ctrl+P (⌘+P on a Mac), choose Save as PDF (or Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows), set Pages to Custom and list the pages to keep, leaving out the ones you’re deleting: to drop page 4 of a ten-page file, enter 1-3, 5-10. The full steps are in how to extract pages from a PDF.

The catch: printing makes a flattened copy, so fillable fields stop being fillable and links may not survive. That’s fine for a finished document, not for a form you still need to fill.

Delete pages on Windows

PDF24 Creator is a free Windows app that removes, adds and moves pages offline. PDFsam Basic (Windows, Mac and Linux) has no delete tool, but its Extract tool saves only the pages you list, which does the same job.

Delete pages in Chrome with Quire PDF

Quire PDF is our extension. It removes pages without flattening the file, so form fields and annotations on the remaining pages stay as they were.

  1. Open the PDF

    Click the Quire PDF icon, choose Open a PDF, or drop the file on the page.

  2. Open Manage pages

    Choose Pages in the toolbar.

  3. Select the pages

    Tick the checkbox on each page you want to remove.

  4. Delete

    Choose Manage › Delete. An Undo button appears if you picked the wrong page.

  5. Save a copy

    Save a copy downloads the shorter PDF. The original file is never changed.

Questions

Is a deleted page really gone from the file?

With Preview, page tools and Quire PDF, the saved copy is built without the removed pages. If the content is sensitive, open the saved file and check before you share it, and keep in mind that your original still has every page.

Can I delete pages in Chrome’s own viewer?

Not directly. Google’s help for the viewer lists no page tools; the print trick above is the built-in workaround.

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