Hi. I have a 30-megabyte PDF file containing a dozen, or so, signal processing papers. And I'd like to extract just the first paper in that large file and make the extracted paper available here on dsprelated.com. Is there a way to extract (capture) just a portion of a PDF file?

Thanks.

There might be number of ways. One is to print selected pages to PDF printer, which also come in number, like free pdf creator or Foxit reader with export module. Another possibility is Writer app of LibreOffice suite. I'm sure there are dozens of other tools available.

I use PDF Shuffler in Ubuntu.  If you are looking for a Windows application, google "PDF split and merge."  I recall using an application of that name that worked well.

Hey there Rick,

First of all thanks (in advance) for sharing the paper :).

So, the most obvious way to do so is to use Acrobat Professional.

Additionally as rrlagic mentions there are a lot more ways to do so. I attach a link to an online tool (which I have not used, so I cannot guarantee it's safe or that works as intended).

You can also look at this link which shows 6 different ways to do so and pick one that suites your taste best.

Once more, thanks for your good will.

Best,

Achilles.

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH

-dFirstPage=m -dLastPage=n -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

Hi, Rick.

If you are willing to use python for this purpose, which might give you quite a lot of more possibilities, it's worth checking the link below.

Just copy/pasting of the shown 15 lines and running it from command line will give you the whole document as separated single page documents.

https://realpython.com/pdf-python/#how-to-split-pdfs

I second the "print to pdf" option suggested by rrlagic. A possible downside to this is that you will lose any metadata (such as links within the document).

My favourite free option in the past has been pdfsam.

However, just last night I discovered this free web-based solution. It worked perfectly for me and has the advantage that you don't have to install anything.

Hi rrlagic, djmaguire, ZaelixA (Achilles), bholzmayer, and weetabixharry. Thanks for all your suggestions. You guys rock!!

I tried weetabixharry's link at:

https://www.ilovepdf.com/split_pdf

and, amazingly, it worked perfectly. You guys gave such good advice that I'm likely to ask for advice on other topics in the future. Such as, how to convince my grandchildren to put down their miserable cellphones and go outside and play.