Split PDF Pages in Half
Cut scanned two-page spreads into single pages. Move the cut to the gutter, keep the covers whole and pick the reading order.
Select a PDF fileor drop it anywhere on this page, or paste
Opens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Split PDF Pages in Half, free and private
Split PDF pages in half to turn each scanned two-page spread into two single pages. A book scanned open on the glass gives one wide page with the left and right pages side by side. This tool cuts every such page down the gutter and saves the halves as separate pages, in reading order.
You can also cut top from bottom, move the cut off centre when the gutter is not in the middle, keep the cover whole, and put the right half first for books read right to left. The PDF is split in your browser and never uploaded, and text stays selectable because nothing is turned into an image.
How to split PDF pages in half
- 1
Add your PDF
Press Select a PDF file or drop the file onto the page. A preview of the first page appears with the cut line drawn over it.
- 2
Choose the cut direction
Pick Left and right for scanned double pages and two-page spreads. Pick Top and bottom when two pages are stacked on one sheet, such as two A5 pages printed on a portrait A4 sheet.
- 3
Set the split position
The cut starts at 50%. Drag on the preview or move the Cut position slider to put it in the gutter, anywhere from 10% to 90% in steps of 0.5%. Use the arrows above the preview to check the line on other pages. Press Centre to go back to 50%.
- 4
Pick which pages to cut
Turn on Keep first page whole or Keep last page whole when the covers were scanned as single pages. Turn on Only split landscape pages to leave every portrait page alone in a mixed scan.
- 5
Split the pages in half and download
Press Split pages. The result says how many pages were cut and how many pages the new PDF has. Press Download PDF. The file name ends in -split-half.
Why use PDFToolz for this
Split scanned double pages without quality loss
Each half is a copy of the original page with its visible area narrowed to one side. Nothing is rasterized, so a 300 DPI scan keeps all 300 DPI and digital text stays sharp, selectable and searchable.
A movable cut with a live preview
Scanned books rarely have the gutter in the exact middle. You see the cut line on your own page while you drag it, and the numbers 1 and 2 on each side show the order the halves will come out in.
Right to left reading order
Right half first puts the right page before the left one. Use it for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu books, and for manga, which are read from the right.
Rotated pages split where you see them
Some scanners store pages sideways and set a rotation flag. The cut is measured on the page as your viewer shows it, so the left half is the left half you see on screen.
Small output files
Both halves of a page point to the same page content inside the file instead of holding a copy each. A 50 MB scanned book stays close to 50 MB after the split.
Works on any device, with no upload
There is no sign-up, watermark or page limit. The tool runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, and the file never leaves the device.
How to split a two-page spread PDF
A two-page spread is one PDF page that shows two book pages next to each other. You get them from flatbed scans of an open book, from phone scanning apps, and from magazines and comics exported as spreads. Most e-readers and phones show such a page at half the size you need, so the text is hard to read.
Add the PDF, keep Left and right selected and check the preview. If the gutter sits left or right of the line, drag the line onto it. Press Split pages. A 40-page scan of spreads becomes an 80-page PDF where page 1 is the left half of the first spread and page 2 is its right half.
Covers, inserts and mixed scans
Book scans often start and end with a single page. The front cover is scanned alone and the back cover too. Keep first page whole and Keep last page whole copy those pages unchanged, so the cover is not cut through the middle.
Only split landscape pages handles scans where single pages and spreads are mixed in any order. A page counts as landscape when it is at least as wide as it is tall, as the viewer shows it. In Top and bottom mode the option reads Only split portrait pages and works the other way round.
Splitting a page horizontally
Top and bottom cuts each page across. Use it for two A5 pages printed on one portrait A4 sheet, for a booklet scanned with the fold running sideways, or for tall slides with notes below. The top half always comes first. Right half first only applies to left and right cuts, so it is hidden in this mode.
What the split keeps and what it drops
The cut changes the page boxes that decide which part of a page is shown and printed. Here is what that means for your file:
- Text, images and vector drawings keep their original quality and stay selectable.
- Web links and comments stay on the half where their centre falls.
- Bookmarks are not carried over, and fillable form fields may stop working.
- The hidden half is still stored in the data of each page, the same way Crop PDF works. Do not rely on the split to remove private content. Use Redact PDF for that.
- One cut position applies to every page that is split. If the gutter moves a lot between pages, split the PDF into parts with Split PDF and cut each part on its own.
Clean up the scan before or after the split
A tilted scan gives a tilted gutter, so no straight cut fits it well. Run Deskew Scanned PDF first to straighten the pages, then split them here. After the split, Crop PDF with Auto crop white margins trims the empty border around each half. A dark scanner edge counts as content there, so drag a box in Crop PDF to cut it off. To make the text searchable, run OCR PDF on the split file. To put the pages back side by side for printing, use N-up PDF with 2 per sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Add the PDF, choose Left and right or Top and bottom, drag the cut line onto the gutter in the preview and press Split pages. Every page is cut into two pages in a new PDF, which you download with Download PDF.
Pick Left and right and check that the cut line sits in the gutter of the scan. Turn on Keep first page whole if the cover was scanned on its own. Each scanned spread becomes two pages, left page first.
Yes. Turn on Right half first and the right page of each spread comes before the left page. This suits Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese books and manga.
No. The halves are not re-rendered. Each one shows part of the original page, so scans keep their resolution and digital text stays sharp and selectable.
Yes. Drag the cut line on the preview or move the Cut position slider anywhere from 10% to 90% of the page width, or of the height for a top and bottom cut. The same position is used for every page that is split.
Use this page in any browser. It needs no Acrobat, no app and no account. It works the same on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android.
It is free, with no watermark or page limit. The PDF is read and split on your device and is never sent to a server.
Both halves of a page share the same page data inside the file, and only the visible area differs. The part you cannot see is still stored, so use Redact PDF if a half holds something private.
