An upload portal rejects my PDF as too large. How do I split it into smaller parts?

Before you split: does the portal take several files?

Many tender portals, government services and job sites cap the size of each file but allow several attachments. That is where splitting helps. If the portal accepts only one file, splitting will not solve it; you need to make the file itself smaller or ask the organisation for another way to send it. Read the portal's instructions first to see the cap it applies and how many files it allows.

The steps

1. Open Split PDF and choose the file. Say it is a 120-page catalog.
2. Choose “One PDF per range”.
3. Type the blocks: 1-50, 51-100, 101-120
4. Press “Split and download”, open the ZIP and check each file's size in your file manager.
5. If a part is still over the cap, open it in the same tool and split it in two.

Why the parts are not equal in size

It is natural to expect a 30 MB file cut into three to give three parts of about the same size. That rarely happens, for two reasons. Pages are not equal: one with a large product photo weighs far more than a price table. And shared resources such as fonts are copied into every part, so the parts together can even add up to more than the original.

So do not plan the blocks on page count alone. If you know the heavy photos sit at the front of the catalog, make the first block shorter, for example 1-30, 31-80, 81-120.

Make life easy for whoever receives the parts

• Rename the parts in order, such as part 1 of 3, because a reviewer on the other side may not realise pages-51-100 is the second part.
• Leave no gaps between ranges. The preview line before download shows the total pages, so make sure it equals the file's page count.
• If the recipient later needs the whole file, the parts can be joined again in order with Merge PDFs.