How to Remove Blank Pages from a Scanned PDF
Published by PDFToolz · Updated · Technical references listed below
To remove blank pages from a scanned PDF, run it through a blank page detector that measures how much ink each page carries, check the pages it marks, and save a copy without them. PDFToolz Remove Blank Pages does this in your browser with no upload. By default it marks every page with 0.1% ink or less, shows each page as a thumbnail, and lets you tap any page to keep or remove it. For a few pages you can already see, Delete PDF Pages, Preview on a Mac or Adobe Acrobat also work.
This guide explains why scans pick up blank pages, gives the steps, and shows how detection and sensitivity work. It covers the blank page settings in Epson Scan 2, ScanSnap Home and Canon multifunction printers, and ends with what to do when a page is detected wrongly.
Why scanned PDFs have blank pages
The usual cause is a duplex scanner. It scans both sides of every sheet, so a stack of one-sided pages comes out with a blank page after every page of content. A 40-sheet stack becomes an 80-page PDF, and half of it is empty. Interleaving a fronts scan and a backs scan of one-sided sheets gives the same result.
Other blanks come from separator sheets, the inside of a cover, and printed pages that say this page intentionally left blank. Digital PDFs pick up blanks too. A Word file exported with a stray page break often ends with an empty page.
A blank scan is rarely empty to a computer. It is a full-page image with paper texture, dust, a gray shadow along the edge and sometimes faint text showing through from the other side. A tool that only checks whether a page has any content will keep it, so detection has to look at the pixels.
How to remove blank pages from a PDF, step by step
The kept pages are copied into the new file, not drawn again. Text stays selectable, scans keep their resolution, and page sizes and rotation do not change.
- Open Remove Blank Pages and select the PDF. The tool checks the pages one by one and shows which page it is on.
- Look at the marked pages. A page marked for removal fades and shows a red cross. Under each thumbnail you see the share of the page covered by ink, such as 0.02% ink, or Empty for a page that draws nothing at all.
- Move the Sensitivity slider between 1 and 10 if the marks are wrong. Raise it to catch noisy blanks. Lower it to keep pages with a little real content.
- Tap a page to change it. A tap on a marked page keeps it, and a tap on an unmarked page removes it. Reset to detected undoes your taps.
- Press Remove blank pages and download the new PDF. Its name ends in -no-blank-pages.pdf.
How blank page detection works
Remove Blank Pages draws each page at up to 60 DPI, capped at one million pixels. At 60 DPI a line of 10 pt text is still about 8 pixels tall. The tool then counts how much of the page is ink.
A band of 6% along every edge is ignored. That band holds most scanner shadows, punch holes, staples and running headers. The paper tone is read from each page, so light gray recycled paper or a pale yellow form does not count as ink.
A pixel counts as ink only when it is at least 64 levels darker than the paper on a 0 to 255 scale. That drops faint show-through from the other side. A dark pixel also needs at least two dark neighbors, which drops single specks of dust.
A page that draws no text, images or shapes at all is labeled Empty. Empty pages are marked at every sensitivity level.
Choose the right sensitivity
The slider sets the most ink a page may carry and still count as blank. Start at the default of 5 and move one step at a time while you watch the thumbnails.
| Level | Most ink on a blank page | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01% | Clean digital files, where only spotless pages should go |
| 3 | 0.04% | Good scans on white paper with little dust |
| 5, the default | 0.1% | Most scans. A page with only a page number counts as blank, and a page with one line of text is kept |
| 8 | 0.4% | Noisy scans with heavy dust or dark paper texture |
| 10 | 1% | Very dirty scans. Pages with a short heading or a signature line may be marked |
Scanner settings that skip blank pages
Many scanner apps can drop blank pages while they scan, so the PDF never contains them. The setting has a different name in each app.
The catch is that the scanner deletes a page before you see it. A page with a light pencil note or a pale stamp can be thrown away with no copy left. For contracts, medical or tax records, set the scanner's blank page option low or off and remove blanks afterwards with a tool that lets you review them.
- Epson Scan 2 has a Skip Blank Page setting on the Advanced Settings tab. The levels are Off, Very Low, Low, Middle and High, plus a User Defined Level. Epson warns that Middle may skip pages with pencil marks or text bleeding through, and High skips pages with pencil or pen marks.
- ScanSnap Home has a Blank page removal checkbox. Open the profile in Edit profiles, click Detailed settings under Scan settings, and find it on the Scan tab. The ScanSnap help warns that almost blank pages can be deleted, and that Reduce bleed-through makes more pages count as blank.
- Some Canon multifunction printers have a Skip Blank Originals setting for scans sent to an email or file destination, with an adjustable detection level. Canon notes that an original smaller than the scan size may not be skipped correctly.
Ways to remove blank pages compared
Only the scanner setting and Remove Blank Pages find blank pages for you. The other tools delete pages you pick yourself, which is fine for a short file and slow for a 200-page scan.
| Method | Finds blanks for you | Review before deleting | Cost and upload |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDFToolz Remove Blank Pages | Yes, by measuring ink, with a 10-step slider | Yes, every page as a thumbnail | Free, no upload |
| Scanner blank page setting | Yes, while scanning | No, skipped pages are never saved | Comes with the scanner |
| PDFToolz Delete PDF Pages | No, you tap or type the pages | Yes | Free, no upload |
| Preview on Mac | No, you select thumbnails | Yes | Free, built into macOS |
| Adobe Acrobat online Delete pages | No, you select thumbnails | Yes | Uploads the file to Adobe and asks you to sign in |
Delete blank pages on Mac with Preview
Preview, the PDF app built into macOS, deletes pages you select. It does not detect blank pages, so it suits files with a few blanks you can spot by eye. Work on a copy, since Preview saves changes into the file you have open.
- Open the PDF in Preview.
- Choose View > Thumbnails or View > Contact Sheet.
- Select the blank pages. Hold Command to select several.
- Press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Delete.
Delete blank pages in Adobe Acrobat
In the Acrobat desktop app, open Organize pages, select the thumbnails of the blank pages and delete them. Adobe's online Delete PDF Pages tool works the same way in a browser, but it uploads the file to Adobe's servers and asks you to sign in after the upload. Both delete the pages you select, so you still have to find the blanks yourself.
- Go to Adobe's Delete PDF Pages page and select the file.
- Sign in when Acrobat has uploaded it.
- Highlight the thumbnails of the blank pages.
- Click the trash can icon in the top toolbar.
- Click Save, then download the file.
Remove blank pages on Windows, iPhone or Android
Remove Blank Pages runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, so the same steps work on a Windows PC, an iPhone, an iPad or an Android phone, with nothing to install.
Every page has to be drawn once to be measured, so a long scan takes longer on a phone than on a computer. The file stays on the device the whole time.
Clean up the rest of the scan in the right order
Blank pages are often one of several fixes a scan needs. The order matters, because some tools replace each page with a new image.
- If the fronts and backs are in separate files, combine them with Interleave PDF first. Removing blanks before that shifts every later pair.
- Remove the blank pages next, so later steps have fewer pages to process.
- Straighten crooked pages with Deskew Scanned PDF. It redraws every page as a JPEG image at 160 DPI and corrects tilts of up to 5 degrees on its own, or up to 15 degrees by hand. That replaces any existing text layer.
- Run OCR PDF after deskewing, so the searchable text matches the straightened page.
- Compress the finished file with Compress PDF if it is too big to send.
When detection gets a page wrong
Detection measures how much ink a page has, not what the marks mean. Look over the marked pages before you save, and use these fixes when a page is wrong.
- A blank page is not marked. It has more marks than the level allows, often a scanner shadow that reaches past the edge band or heavy dust. Raise the sensitivity a step, or tap the page.
- A page with real content is marked. Light pencil notes, pale stamps and faint watermarks carry very little ink. Lower the sensitivity, or tap the page to keep it.
- A page with only a page number is marked. A number in the outer 6% of the page falls inside the ignored band. Tap the page if you want to keep it.
- A page that says this page intentionally left blank is not marked. One line of text carries more ink than the default level allows. Raise the slider one or two steps, or tap the page.
- The scanner deleted pages you needed. Lower or turn off its blank page setting, and on ScanSnap also turn off Reduce bleed-through.
- The PDF asks for a password. Remove the open password with Unlock PDF first, using the password you know.
- Bookmarks are gone from the new file. The new PDF is built from the kept pages, so the outline is not carried over. Fillable form fields may also stop working, so fill in a form before you remove pages.
Key takeaways
- ✓To remove blank pages from a scanned PDF, measure the ink on each page, review the marked pages and save a copy without them.
- ✓PDFToolz Remove Blank Pages marks pages with 0.1% ink or less by default, ignores a 6% edge band and single specks of dust, and runs in your browser.
- ✓Scanner settings such as Epson's Skip Blank Page and ScanSnap's Blank page removal drop pages before you can check them.
- ✓Preview, Acrobat and Delete PDF Pages delete pages you select by hand, with no automatic detection.
- ✓Interleave fronts and backs first, remove blanks next, then deskew and run OCR.
Tools for the job
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove blank pages from a PDF for free?
Open PDFToolz Remove Blank Pages and add the PDF. It marks the blank pages, you check the thumbnails and tap any page you want to change, then press Remove blank pages and download the new file. There is no sign-up, watermark or upload.
How do I delete empty pages from a scanned PDF automatically?
Use a tool that measures ink, since a blank scan is still a full-page image and never looks empty to a content check. Remove Blank Pages ignores single specks of dust, the edges of the page and faint show-through, and marks pages with 0.1% ink or less at the default level.
Why does my scanned PDF have a blank page after every page?
The scanner read both sides of one-sided sheets. Turn off double-sided scanning for one-sided documents, or remove the blank backs afterwards with Remove Blank Pages.
Can my scanner skip blank pages?
Many scanners can. Epson Scan 2 calls it Skip Blank Page, ScanSnap Home calls it Blank page removal, and some Canon multifunction printers have Skip Blank Originals for scans sent to email or a file. Skipped pages are never saved, so keep the level low for important papers.
How do I delete blank pages from a PDF on Mac without Acrobat?
In Preview, choose View > Thumbnails, select the blank pages and press Delete. To have the blanks found for you, use Remove Blank Pages in Safari or Chrome.
Why isn't a blank page being detected?
It carries more marks than the current sensitivity allows, usually a dark scanner edge or heavy dust. Raise the Sensitivity slider a step, or tap the page to remove it by hand.
Related terms
Sources and further reading
- Blank pages appear in my scanned image when using Epson Scan 2. What should I do? from Epson Support
- Some pages are deleted even though they are not blank from PFU, a Ricoh company (ScanSnap Help)
- Skipping blank pages when scanning from Canon User's Guide
- Delete PDF pages online from Adobe
- Add, delete, or move PDF pages in Preview on Mac from Apple Support
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