The usual reasons are mundane and constant: a blank page the scanner added, a cover sheet nobody needs, a fax confirmation page, or an appendix that should not go to this particular recipient. All you want is the same document minus a few pages.
How to write the selection
Individual pages, ranges, or both together: "3" removes one page, "4-6" removes three, and "1, 4-6, 12" removes five. Page numbers are the ones your PDF reader shows, starting at 1 — not zero-based indices.
You can leave the end off a range: "10-" means page 10 to the end, which is handy for cutting a trailing appendix without counting how long it is. Spaces are ignored, and so is the order you list things in.
The pages you keep are unchanged
Deletion here copies the surviving page objects into a new document. Nothing is re-rendered, so text stays selectable, images keep their original bytes and vector graphics stay sharp. The result prints exactly like the original did, minus what you removed.
The file usually gets smaller, though rarely in proportion to the pages removed — a fonts-and-resources overhead is shared across the document, and removing two pages from fifty does not remove one twenty-fifth of the bytes.
Deleted is not redacted
This matters and is worth being blunt about. Removing a page removes it properly — the page and its content are not carried into the new document, so this is not the false kind of deletion where the data is still in the file behind a black box. But if the sensitive material also appears on pages you are keeping, deleting a page does nothing about that.
Redaction — removing specific content from within a page — is a different operation and a genuinely difficult one. If you are removing a page because of what is on it, check the remaining pages for the same information before sending the file on.
- You cannot delete every page; at least one has to remain, and the tool says so rather than producing an empty file.
- Page numbers outside the document are ignored, so "1-999" on a 12-page file simply means all of it.
- Bookmarks pointing at deleted pages do not survive, and neither do bookmarks generally.
- Encrypted PDFs are refused with an explanation — remove the password in a reader first.
Check the page numbers before you commit
It is worth opening the document and noting the page numbers you want gone before typing them, because a PDF reader may show a different number from the position in the file. A report whose own numbering starts after a cover and contents page will show "1" on what is really the third page. The selection here always means position in the file.