Splitting a large PDF usually comes down to one of two situations: the file is too big to email or upload somewhere, or you need to distribute different sections to different people. Either way, the process is the same โ decide where to cut and use a tool to make the split.
Using a Browser Tool: The Fastest Path
A browser-based split tool is the most straightforward option โ upload the PDF, specify where to split it, download the resulting files. WukongPDF's split tool lets you define page ranges: specify which pages go into each output file, and it creates separate PDFs for each range. For a 100-page document where you want pages 1-30, 31-65, and 66-100 as separate files, you enter those ranges and download all three.
Most split tools also offer an "extract every page as a separate file" option, which is useful when you want to break a scanned document into individual page images or when you're splitting a collection of separate documents that were previously merged.
Using Preview on Mac
Preview handles splitting without any extra software. Open the PDF in Preview, show the thumbnail panel (View โ Thumbnails), select the pages you want in the first output file, then go to File โ Print. In the print dialog, set the page range to match your selection and print to PDF โ this creates one output file. Repeat for each section you want to split out.
It's a bit more manual than a dedicated split tool, but works perfectly well for splitting a file into two or three pieces. For more complex splits โ many sections, or splitting based on bookmarks โ a browser tool is quicker.
Splitting to Get Under a File Size Limit
When the goal is just to get under an email or upload size limit, try compressing the PDF first before splitting it. A PDF Compression pass often reduces size enough that splitting isn't needed โ a 60MB document can frequently be brought down to 12MB, which is under most email limits. Splitting is the right move when compression alone doesn't get there, or when the file size is genuinely huge (several hundred MB) and compression alone can't overcome it.
Naming the Split Files Clearly
The output files from a split tool usually have generic names like "output_1.pdf" and "output_2.pdf." Rename them before distributing โ use names that describe what's in each section, like "AnnualReport_2026_Section1_Overview.pdf" and "AnnualReport_2026_Section2_Financials.pdf." People receiving the files will appreciate being able to tell what they have without opening each one.
When the Split Needs to Follow Logical Boundaries
If the PDF has bookmarks โ a table of contents with clickable links that jump to sections โ splitting by bookmark is more reliable than guessing page ranges manually. The bookmark already marks where each section starts, so the split happens at the right places automatically. Tools that support bookmark-based splitting (like Adobe Acrobat Pro or PDFsam) make this much easier than manually figuring out that "Chapter 3 starts on page 47."