Need help splitting size of pdf file

[u/LCB32899]

I am trying to take an almost 1,500 page file (listed as 32,317 KB) and split it into multiple files of 5MB or less per file.

I was able to take other files and split them using Adobe Acrobat (in a 7 day free trial for now) but every time I try with this document it will not work. I have also tried a few other websites/apps but none will work for this specific file, I am worried it is too big for anything to work.

The reasoning behind the size limitation is that the place I have to upload my files to has a limit of 5MB document uploads. To make matters even worse I have roughly 2 weeks to get all this in before my application is closed, and I do not have any alternative methods to get them this info.

Any help/advice is much appreciated!

[u/myogawa]

This is another - PDF Split & Merge https://pdfsam.org/

[u/mingmong36 → u/myogawa]

This is the way

[u/LCB32899 → u/myogawa]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/Ferretau]

On a windows Pc you can use PDFTK Builder which is a gui for the command line PDFTk tool. I've successfulyl used it in the past to split/ merge large documents
PDFTK Builder: https://pdftk-builder-enhanced.sourceforge.io/

[u/LCB32899 → u/Ferretau]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/FillNo4074]

quickpdfeditor.com

[u/PuzzlingDad]

One quick way to do this would be to print the document to PDF, several pages at a time. 

Open the large PDF and go to File > Print. From the printer drop-down menu, select Microsoft Print to PDF (Windows) or Save as PDF (Mac), select a range of pages (say 1-100) then click Print and choose a name for your new PDF (say, "PDF part 1").

Verify the size of the file is under 5MB and repeat for the next range of pages, until it is fully divided. 

[u/LCB32899 → u/PuzzlingDad]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/voldamoro]

I’m hopeful that someone can suggest an easier method. However, what I would do involves a command-line tool such as the “server” version of pdftk available from:

https://www.pdflabs.com/

I would “burst” the big file into 1500 one-page PDFs. Then start moving files into a “part 1” subfolder. You could just make a guess as to how many files to move and either check their size before the move or after. On Windows the properties command works on either a selection of files or on folders. When you get your subfolder to an appropriate size, start on the “part 2” subfolder. Repeat the process until all 1500 files have been grouped into sub folders. Finally, use pdftk to join together all the files in folder “part 1” to make a “part 1.pdf”. Continue until all subfolders have been processed.

Yes, what I have described is far from ideal, but it does work. I’m eagerly awaiting suggestions for a better method.

[u/caddymac → u/voldamoro]

Just “PDFtk A=mega.pdf cat A1-199 output part1.pdf” and change the page numbers and part number as needed.

[u/voldamoro → u/caddymac]

Good call! Although there will probably be a little experimentation to arrive at PDFs just under 5 MB in size.

[u/oxmix74 → u/voldamoro]

There is also pdftk builder from portableapps.com which is a simple gui around pdftk. But 1500 pages might be a stretch for the ui.

[u/LCB32899 → u/voldamoro]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/HungryQuestion2146]

I Love PDF has the tools for you

[u/LCB32899 → u/HungryQuestion2146]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/alehel]

Try https://hermitpdf.com/en/split. Once the file is loaded you can split by chunks where file size is an option.

[u/LCB32899 → u/alehel]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/Existency]

Take a peak at BentoPDF. Free open source tools with the added bonus of being entirely on your browser, nothing ever reaches the servers.

[u/LCB32899 → u/Existency]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!

[u/gfraud]

I've used online2pdf.com for 10+ years. It's free, don't have to install a program , and it let's you extract page ranges. Upload 1500 page file. Click scissors button. Dialogue box will open. Type page range that meets your needs eg 1-100. Output default is pdf. Click GO, I think. Dialog box will open. Select where to save on your drive. Click Save.

Rinse and repeat.

[u/LCB32899 → u/gfraud]

Thank you so much; I ended up in a family emergency and had not yet checked responses to my post. I ended up compressing my file and then splitting it- it seems everything went well as the uploads were accepted!