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How to extract pages from a PDF

Short answer: print just those pages to a PDF. In Chrome, press Ctrl+P, choose Save as PDF, set Pages to Custom and enter the page numbers. On a Mac, you can also drag page thumbnails from Preview’s sidebar to the desktop.

Printing makes a flat copy. To keep form fields and annotations working, use a page tool instead.

Updated 15 October 2026. Print steps follow Google’s Chrome help and Microsoft’s Edge help; Mac steps follow Apple’s Preview guide.

Extract pages by printing to PDF

  1. Open the PDF in Chrome or Edge

    Drag the file into the browser window, or click a link to it.

  2. Open the print dialog

    Press Ctrl+P (⌘+P on a Mac).

  3. Choose a PDF destination

    In Chrome, choose Save as PDF as the destination; you may need See more to find it. On Windows, Microsoft Print to PDF also works.

  4. Enter the pages

    Set Pages to Custom and type the pages you want, such as 4 for one page or 2-5, 9 for several.

  5. Save the new file

    Click Save and give the new PDF a name. The original is unchanged.

The result is a printed copy. The U.S. National Institutes of Health’s help describes printing to Microsoft Print to PDF as a way to flatten a PDF, so form fields stop being fillable. Links and bookmarks may not survive either. For a page you want to read or send, that rarely matters.

Extract pages with Preview on a Mac

  1. Show the thumbnails

    Open the PDF in Preview and choose View › Thumbnails.

  2. Select the pages

    Click a page; Command-click to add more.

  3. Drag them to the desktop

    Apple’s guide says dragging thumbnails from the sidebar to the desktop creates a new PDF. Rename it in the Finder.

Extract pages with a desktop app

PDFsam Basic, free and open source for Windows, Mac and Linux, has an Extract tool: give it the page numbers and it writes a new file. Its makers say nothing is uploaded. On Windows, PDF24 Creator also extracts pages offline.

Export selected pages with Quire PDF

Quire PDF is our Chrome extension. Its export builds the new file from the pages themselves rather than printing them, and in our tests an exported page kept its annotations.

  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. Tick the pages you want

    Use the checkbox on each page’s thumbnail.

  4. Export

    Choose Manage › Export selected…. Quire downloads a new PDF named after the original, ending in “selected pages”.

You can highlight or fill in the pages first; the export includes your changes. The document you’re working on stays complete.

Questions

Can I save a single page of a PDF as an image?

That is a different job. Preview can export a page as an image with File › Export; this guide covers saving pages as a PDF.

How do I split a PDF into several files?

Repeat any of the methods above for each range, or use PDFsam Basic’s Split tool, which can break a file into many at once.

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