Cut a PDF into Tiles and Sections
How to cut sections from a PDF page at exact positions
Cut PDF pages into a grid of horizontal and vertical sections. Set the number of cuts in each direction and select the source pages, then download the results in a ZIP. This is useful for separating panels or sections from a larger layout. Check the cut boundaries so they do not divide labels, diagrams or other content that needs to stay together.
Cost: Free to use. File size and usage limits apply.
How to cut a PDF page into sections
Upload one PDF
Click Choose PDF, drop the file onto the preview, or pick a PDF you already used in another tool from Uploads. Files up to 200 MB are accepted.
Work out where the cuts belong
Page through the preview and express each cut as a share of the page:
0.5is the middle,0.25a quarter of the way in. Horizontal cuts count from the top edge, vertical cuts from the left edge.Enter the cut positions
Type one or more decimals into Horizontal cuts, Vertical cuts or both, separated by spaces or commas. At least one of the two fields needs a value.
Limit pages or add a margin if needed
Use Pages (optional) to cut only some pages and Margin (pt) if the tiles need a white border. Both can stay empty.
Cut and download
Click Cut PDF. When the job has finished, Download cut ZIP saves an archive with one PDF for every processed page.
Settings explained
- Horizontal cuts
- Starts empty. Enter positions of horizontal cut lines as decimals greater than 0 and less than 1, measured from the top of the page.
0.5splits a page into a top and a bottom half;0.3333 0.6667gives three roughly equal strips. The order does not matter, but enter each position only once. There is no fixed limit on the number of positions. - Vertical cuts
- Starts empty and uses the same format, measured from the left edge.
0.5separates the left and right half of a scanned two-page spread. Every page yields (horizontal cuts + 1) × (vertical cuts + 1) tiles, so0.5in both fields makes 4 tiles. - Margin (pt)
- Starts empty, with no border. Enter 0 pt or more; the number control changes in steps of 0.5 pt and has no fixed maximum. Points are a physical unit: 1 pt = 1/72 in, about 0.35 mm. A white border sits inside each tile while the content shrinks. For a horizontal-only cut on an 842 pt wide page,
20pt scales the content to about 95%. Use a small margin suitable for your printer and check a printed tile before printing the full set. - Pages (optional)
- Page numbers and ranges such as
1-3,5. Leave it empty to cut every page. Use positive page numbers and closed ranges in increasing order, such as2-4. Pages you leave out are not part of the ZIP; reversed ranges, open ranges such as5-and numbers above the page count are rejected.
What the ZIP contains
The ZIP holds one PDF for each processed page, named after the page number it came from. Each of these PDFs starts with an overview: the original page with your cut lines drawn as red dashed lines. The tiles follow as separate pages, left to right and top to bottom, so the top-left section is always page 2.
Every tile becomes a page exactly as large as its section. Take a US Letter page (612 × 792 pt) with Horizontal cuts 0.5 and Vertical cuts 0.25 0.5: each of the two rows holds tiles of 153 × 396 pt, 153 × 396 pt and 306 × 396 pt, so the PDF for that page has 7 pages. Because positions are fractions, the same values fit other page sizes too: on an A4 landscape page (842 × 595 pt) they produce tiles of 210.5 × 297.5 pt and 421 × 297.5 pt.
Tiles share their page's images and fonts, so four tiles do not require four copies of each embedded image. The ZIP size still depends on the content, compression and how many pages you select. Interactive annotations, including comments and form fields, are not retained in the tile PDFs.
Typical jobs, and when another PDF tool fits better
Scanned book spreads
Two book pages scanned on one sheet: Vertical cuts 0.5 turns every scan into a separate left and right page.
Several items on one scan
Receipts, tickets or cards scanned together: set Horizontal cuts at the gaps between them, for example 0.34 0.68, and each item becomes its own page.
Equal tiles
If every tile should have the same size, PDF N-down only needs the number of tiles per page.
Printing larger than the page
To enlarge a page across several sheets of a chosen paper size, use PDF Poster. Cutting keeps each section at its original size.
Keeping one area of every page
To trim edges or keep the same region of each page in a single PDF, Crop PDF is the better choice.
Formats and limits
- Input format
- Output format
- ZIP archive with one PDF per processed page: an overview page followed by the tiles
- Maximum file size
- 200 MB
- Files per job
- 1 PDF
- Tiles per page
- (horizontal cuts + 1) × (vertical cuts + 1)
- Password-protected PDFs
- PDFs that ask for a password when opened need to be unlocked first with Unlock PDF. PDFs that only restrict editing or printing can be cut.
- Document properties
- Each output PDF is a new document; properties such as the title are not carried over.
- Processing
- On our servers with the pdfcpu PDF library. A job can run for up to 15 minutes.
- Watermark
- None
- Storage
- Uploads and results are deleted automatically after 48 hours for guests and after 30 days for free accounts. Paid plans can keep files longer.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cut just one part out of a PDF page?
Place cuts on both sides of the part you need. Horizontal cuts 0.2 0.6, for example, turn the band from 20% to 60% of the page height into its own tile. If you need the same area of every page in one PDF, crop the pages instead.
Why does every PDF in the ZIP start with the whole page?
That first page is an overview of the original page with the cut lines as red dashed lines. It lets you confirm that no label or diagram was split in the wrong place. The tiles start on page 2; skip or delete the overview if you don't need it.
Does cutting reduce the quality?
Pages are not converted to images, and embedded images are not re-encoded. Each tile reuses the original text, vector graphics and image pixels. A margin reduces the content scale to make room for the white border. Check the result at the intended print size.
Is the content outside a tile removed from the file?
No. A tile only limits the visible area of the page. The rest of the page content is still stored in the file, and anyone with a PDF editor can make it visible again. Don't use cutting to remove confidential information.
What does "must use fractions between 0 and 1" mean?
The cut fields expect positions as a share of the page, not a number of cuts, pixels or percentages. Write 0.25 instead of 25% or 1/4. 0 and 1 are the page edges themselves, so they are not valid cut positions.