trimming pdf's?

October 24, 2007 4:43 PM

Without "pro" software, how can I trim pages from large pdf files?

There are a lot of public domain pdf texts out there on the internet, but they are frequently scans of old "collected works" editions, etc., with a thousand pages or so.

How can I use free software to save just, say, 100 pages of a thousand public domain .pdf?

I've not yet had much help trying to use openoffice Writer or Foxit reader/editor (the option is blocked out or available only to paid Foxit users, I think).

Thanks much for any help.

posted by washburn to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Response by poster: Sorry, I mean to say that I've not yet had much "success" (rather than "help"), trying to use foxit and Writer. I'm in a bit of a rush, I'm afraid.
posted by washburn at 4:51 PM on October 24, 2007

This isn't the most elegant solution, but you could probably use Cute PDF (free last time I used it) and print those 100 pages of the PDF to a PDF.
posted by ejaned8 at 4:52 PM on October 24, 2007

On Unix/X11 systems (Solaris, Linux, *BSD, OS X, ...) you can use gv (ghostview). On the left side of its window there is a list of page numbers; you can mark any number of them with the mouse and use the "Save marked pages" menu command.
posted by phliar at 5:14 PM on October 24, 2007

If you have access to a Mac with OS 10.4, you can simply open the PDF, choose print, set the desired page range, and then save those pages as a new PDF using the PDF button on the bottom left of the print dialog.
posted by pmbuko at 5:46 PM on October 24, 2007

PDFLab
posted by tellurian at 6:31 PM on October 24, 2007

Best answer: PDFill, the Windows equivalent.
posted by kureshii at 7:54 PM on October 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. The PDFill seems to be the best solution for me, since I'm using Windows. Works like a charm!

Heck, maybe better than some charms.
posted by washburn at 8:39 PM on October 24, 2007