how to delete pages from pdf mac

4 Ways to Delete Pages from PDF on Mac

It is easy to delete a page from PDF. But if you just switched from Windows PC to Mac and want to delete pages from pdf on a mac, you may need a short instruction. Here are 4 methods and all are easy yet efficient.

The Best Way: Delete Pages from PDF on in Adobe Acrobat, If You Work on PDFs Often
The Easiest Way: Delete Pages from PDF on Mac in PDFChef
Free: Delete Pages from PDF with Mac Preview
Free: Delete Pages from PDF on Mac Online

1. Delete Pages from PDF in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat should be the top solution to delete pages from pdf on mac. After all, Adobe is the creator of PDF file format and its authority to offer PDF solutions has continued so many years. In addition, it offers more plans and pricing now, enabling users to harness the great power of Adobe products with a more affordable price.

Can I Delete Pages from PDF in Mac Free Adobe Acrobat Reader

Very often, I was asked if the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for mac could delete pages from PDF. The answer is NO!

Deleting pages is one part of Adobe's PDF editing feature, which requires a paid subscription from users. If you want to delete PDF pages in Adobe, you need to buy its Adobe Acrobat. adobe reader cannot delete

How to Delete Pages from PDF in Mac Adobe Acrobat?

Launch Adobe Acrobat and open the PDF file by drag & drop to Adobe Acrobat on your mac.
Go to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Page Thumbnails.
Select the Thumbnails of a page or multiple pages.
Then click the Delete button to remove PDF pages on mac in Adobe Acrobat, or right click and choose Delete Pages .
Click OK to confirm deleting pages from PDF.
Save the changes, or you can edit the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat as you like.

2. The Easiest Way to Delete Pages from PDF on Mac

To delete pages from a PDF, we will have to grab a PDF editor. But when we talk about a PDF editor, it is no way lightweight and simple-to-use, because most of PDF editor developers are ambitious to pack all PDF features into one kit, just as Adobe Acrobat. Therefore, if you want to edit your PDF files easily on mac, to add, delete, rotate or edit the pages, Movavi PDFChef should be your choice now.

Movavi PDFChef is deemed as the most fluent yet simplest productivity app to work on PDF files. It is easy to use, but also is home to abundant yet necessary features to edit your PDF files.

What Movavi PDFChef Offers

Organize PDF pages: add, delete, merge
Convert blank page, Word, Exel, PowerPoint, ePub, HTML, TXT, DJVU, JPG, PNG and BMP to PDF
Convert PDF to Word, ePub, HTML, TXT, JPG, PNG and BMP

Follow These Steps to Delete Pages from PDF on Mac with PDFChef

Grab a copy of Movavi PDF Editor , install and open the program on your Mac.
Add PDF file to the program by drag and drop.
Head to the PDF thumbnails, choose the PDF page you want to delete, right click and select Delete to remove the pages.
Once deleted, go to File > Save to save the changes.

3. Delete Pages from PDF with Mac Preview

Speaking of managing PDF files on Mac, we cannot miss Preview. It is the free productivity tool from macOS to manage image-based files like PDF and images. It is not a file editor but embeds in some quite basic tools, including delete, split, merge, protect, unlock, annotate, print, crop, zoom, etc. Also, it can open Microsoft Office files easily.

Here is how to delete pages from PDF with Mac Preview

Right click on the PDF file to open with Preview.
Make sure the Thumbnails are displayed on the left of Preview interface. There are 2 options to display Thumbnails: Go to View Menu , click on Thumbnails to make sure it is checked; Or go to View , click on Thumbnails to make sure it is checked.
Then click on the Thumbnail of the page you want to delete. To delete multiple pages that are contiguous (next to each other), choose the first page, then press and hold Shift key to select all contiguous pages; To delete multiple pages that are not contiguous (not next to each other), choose the first page, then press and hold Command to select all wanted pages.
Then go to Edit > Delete to delete pages from pdf on mac.

Why can't delete pdf pages in preview?

When deleting pages from pdf with mac Preview, there appears a frequently asked question "Why can't I delete pages in Preivew", this can be caused by following situations.

The Thumbnails are not displayed

The Thumbnails are displayed for users to select the pages you want to delete, if you cannot select, you won't be allowed to delete.

Check if your Preview display files in this way, there is no sidebar to display Thumbnails. hide sidebar

If yes, go to View > Thumbnails . Then you will find the thumbnails are listed on the left sidebar, now you can select thumbnails of pages and the "Delete" function is activated.

Not clicking on the Thumbnails before deleting

Make sure your last step in Preview is to click on the Thumbnails, instead of any other area on the PDF contents. Otherwise, the Delete function is gray and not activated. not clickable

In this case, click back on the selected Thumbnails, then go to Edit>Delete.

Preview runs into a problem

If you have tried above 2 methods but still failed to delete pdf pages in mac Preview. You will need to check if your Preview is updated to the latest.

Launch Preview, go to Preview > About Preview , you will find your Preview version. If it is not the newest version, go to App Store on your mac for software update.

4. Delete Pages from PDF on Mac Online

There are several programs online helping remove PDF pages for free, and here are 2 among them are indeed worth a try.

1.Sejda

In fact, Sejda offer a series of tools to work on PDF files: edit, convert, create, compress, fill&Sign, Merge and Split. All are free to use.

My favorite part of using Sejda to remove PDF pages lies in that it allows me to choose multiples (contiguous or non-contiguous) for deleting, so I don't have to delete one page by one page.

Head to sejda in your web browser.
Click Upload PDF files to add your PDF file, also you can add from Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive/Web Address(URL).
Once all the PDF pages are displayed, choose the page and click the Delete button to remove. Also, you can go to More options on the bottom to select multiple contiguous or non-contiguous pages for removal.
Once ready, click the Apply changes to start deleting PDF pages.
Then download the ready PDF to your Mac or Google Drive, Dropbox and others.

The Bad

Possible risks of information leaks by uploading files online
Free delete up to 200 pages or 50MB
3 Free tasks per hour

2. ilovepdf

Another online free platform to manage PDF files, you can use its free services to edit, merge, split, compress, convert, create, protect and unlock PDFs.

It is quite convenient for user to remove PDF pages with ilovepdf, since you are allowed to selecting multiple pages for removal at one time, you just need to click on the pages.

Head to ilovepdf .
Click Select PDF file to upload your PDF.
Then choose the pages you want to delete, there will a "X" appear. Or you can directly fill the page range on the right panel.
Once ready, click Remove pages to start deleting PDF pages on mac.
Once finishes, the PDF file will be downloaded automatically, choose the output to save the PDF file.

The Bad

Possible risk of information leaks
It takes time

Download Adobe Acrobat or PDFChef for Long-Term Work

Personally, I think Preview is a good way to delete pages from PDF on Mac, it is free and carries basic features to manage a PDF. But if you need more features, a PDF editor, like Adobe Acrobat or Movavi PDFChef would be better.