I only need the terms and conditions on pages 12 to 15 of a long PDF; how do I extract just those?

Writing the range

• A continuous range: 12-15 means pages 12, 13, 14 and 15.
• A page plus a range: 2, 12-15 or 2 12-15, since a space separates just like a comma.
• Spaces around the dash do no harm: 12 - 15 reads the same as 12-15.
• Arabic-Indic digits work too, so ١٢-١٥ typed on an Arabic keyboard is fine.
• A reversed range such as 15-12, or a number beyond the last page, shows an error under the field and nothing starts.

Watch out: the printed page number is not always the file's page

This is the most common slip. The contents page says the terms start on page 12, but the file has an unnumbered cover and contents page before printed page 1. The Pages field counts the file's pages from the very first one, not the numbers printed in the footer. In that case printed page 12 is file page 14, and the right range is 14-17.

To be sure, open the file in your reader and look at the page number it shows in its navigation bar, not the one printed at the bottom of the page. Or extract a single page first, 12, in Page by page mode, and read how it starts to see where you are.

The steps

1. Open the PDF text extractor and choose the long file.
2. Type the correct range in the Pages field once you have checked the offset.
3. Choose One combined text if you will paste into a document or email, or Page by page if you want to know which page each passage came from.
4. Press Extract text and check the summary: Pages with text: 4 of 4 means the whole range is real text.
5. Copy the text or download it. The text file is named after the PDF with text added.

The text, or the pages themselves?

If you are quoting the terms on your website or in an email, the text is what you need. If a customer wants the pages in their original layout, with numbering and logo, cut them out as a separate PDF with Split PDF using the same range. Both tools accept ranges written the same way.