PDF Page Extractor

Extract up to 150 pages from a large PDF into a new, smaller file — useful for working around upload size limits.

Requirements

• Python 3.7+

pypdf is installed automatically the first time you run the script.

Usage

./extract <input.pdf> [output.pdf] [--start N] [--end N]

Examples

Extract the first 150 pages (default):

./extract my_book.pdf

Extract a specific range:

./extract my_book.pdf output.pdf --start 80 --end 229

Custom output filename:

./extract my_book.pdf chapter1.pdf --start 1 --end 150

Options

Option	Default	Description
input	(required)	Path to the source PDF
output	input_extracted.pdf	Path for the output PDF
--start	1	First page to extract (1-indexed)
--end	(start + limit - 1)	Last page to extract
--limit	150	Max pages to extract (up to 300)

Chapter-aware extraction

If the PDF has a table of contents, the script automatically snaps to the nearest chapter boundary before the limit — so you never cut off mid-chapter.

For example, with --limit 150, if a chapter ends at page 137 and the next one would go past 150, the script stops at 137.

If the PDF has no bookmarks, it falls back to the exact page limit.

Output

Total pages in source PDF: 612
Snapping to nearest chapter boundary: page 137 (chapter ends here before limit of 150)
Extracting pages 1–137 (137 pages)...
Saved: my_book_extracted.pdf  (15.2 MB)