PDF Split#

Available Methods#

/pdf/split/#

Split a PDF into multiple PDF files using page indexes or page ranges.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/pdf/split/

Attributes#

Note

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request, for example:

{
    "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf"
}

Attribute

Description

Required

url

URL to the source file. 1

yes

httpusername

HTTP auth user name if required to access source url.

no

httppassword

HTTP auth password if required to access source url.

no

pages

Comma-separated indices of pages (or page ranges) that you want to use. The first-page index is always 0. For example, if you have a 7-page document that you want to be split into 3 separate PDFs with a different number of pages it would go like this: 0, 1, 2- or 1, 2, 3-7 which will result in 1 PDF with page one, 1 PDF with page two and 1 PDF with the rest of the pages. You can also use inverted page numbers adding ! before the number. E.g. !0 means “the last page”, 1-!1 means “from the second to the penultimate page”, and !1- - “last two pages”. Also, you can use a single asterisk (*) character as the range to split every page of the document into separate PDF files. The input must be in string format.

no

password

Password of PDF file, the input must be in string format.

no

async

Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint to check the status of the process and retrieve the output while you can proceed with other tasks.

no

inline

Set to true to return results inside the response. Otherwise, the endpoint will return a link to the output file generated.

no

name

File name for the generated output, the input must be in string format.

no

expiration

Set the expiration time for the output link in minutes (default is 60 i.e 60 minutes or 1 hour), After this specified duration, any generated output file(s) will be automatically deleted from PDF.co Temporary Files Storage. The maximum duration for link expiration varies based on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf templates, documents) consider using PDF.co Built-In Files Storage.

no

profiles

Use this parameter to set additional configurations for fine-tuning and extra options. Explore the Profiles section for more.

no

Query parameters#

No query parameters accepted.

Payload#

{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/sample.pdf",
    "pages": "1-2,3-",
    "inline": true,
    "name": "result.pdf",
    "async": false
}

Response 2#

{
    "urls": [
        "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/1e9a7f2c46834160903276716424382b/result_page1-2.pdf",
        "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/c976b9f89a2e460786a3d5c0deeeef67/result_page3-4.pdf"
    ],
    "pageCount": 4,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "result.pdf",
    "remainingCredits": 98441
}

CURL#

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/split' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: ' \
--data-raw '{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/sample.pdf",
    "pages": "1-2,3-",
    "inline": true,
    "name": "result.pdf",
    "async": false
}'

/pdf/split2/#

Split PDF into multiple PDF files by text search (support regular expressions) or by barcode.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/pdf/split2/

Attributes#

Note

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request, for example:

{
    "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf"
}

Attribute

Description

Required

url

URL to the source file. 1

yes

httpusername

HTTP auth user name if required to access source url.

no

httppassword

HTTP auth password if required to access source url.

no

pages

Comma-separated indices of pages (or page ranges) that you want to use. The first-page index is always 0. For example, if you have a 7-page document that you want to be split into 3 separate PDFs but a different number of pages it would go like this: 0, 1, 2- or 1, 2, 3-7 which will result in 1 PDF with page one, 1 PDF with page two and one PDF with the rest of the pages. You can also use inverted page numbers adding ! before the number. E.g. !0 means “the last page”, 1-!1 means “from the second to the penultimate page”, and !1- - “last two pages”. Also, you can use a single asterisk (*) character as the range to split the document into separate pages. The input must be in string format.

no

searchString

Text to search for on pages. Must be a string.

To search for a barcode use the following macros string: [[barcode:<barcodeTypesSeparatedByComma> <barcodeValue>]].

To search for barcode type without analyzing its value, use this notation instead: [[barcode:<barcodeTypesSeparatedByComma>]].

Example #1, split by QR code: "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode]]".

Example #2, split by QR code with value: "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode bytescout]]".

Example #3, split by QR code with value search with regex: "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode /bytescout\.com/]]".

Example #4, split by QR code or datamatrix with value search with regex: "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode,datamatrix /bytescout\.com/]]".

yes

excludeKeyPages

Set to true if you want to exclude pages where the searchString text was found.

no

regexSearch

Set to true to enable regular expressions for the search string.

no

caseSensitive

Set to true to enable case-sensitive search.

no

lang

Set the language for OCR (text from image) to use for scanned PDF, PNG, and JPG documents input when extracting text. The default is eng. Other languages are also supported: deu, spa, chi_sim, jpn, and many others, see Language Support. You can also use 2 languages simultaneously like this: eng+deu or jpn+kor (any combination).

no

inline

Set to true to return results inside the response. Otherwise, the endpoint will return a link to the output file generated.

no

async

Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint to check the status of the process and retrieve the output while you can proceed with other tasks.

no

name

File name for the generated output, the input must be in string format.

no

expiration

Set the expiration time for the output link in minutes (default is 60 i.e 60 minutes or 1 hour), After this specified duration, any generated output file(s) will be automatically deleted from PDF.co Temporary Files Storage. The maximum duration for link expiration varies based on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf templates, documents) consider using PDF.co Built-In Files Storage.

no

profiles

Use this parameter to set additional configurations for fine-tuning and extra options. Explore the Profiles section for more.

no

Query parameters#

No query parameters accepted.

Payload#

{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/split_by_barcode.pdf",
    "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode,datamatrix /bytescout\\.com/]]",
    "excludeKeyPages": true,
    "regexSearch": false,
    "caseSensitive": false,
    "inline": true,
    "name": "output-split-by-barcode",
    "async": false
}

Response 2#

{
    "urls": [
        "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/A2WX2GR0PX4818EIKW96VR3BZTK5FWT2/output-split-by-barcode_page1.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=FwoGZXIvYXdzEK3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDH1Gv1Q88EtgGpfAYiKCAaQTLV5ot8KMblEXIEFzeznT8mOeGKylp0uktJk2Se8SK5r3nfQTJKa8JqJE0GcW9vOtcBPPqHcPZXf2iQkvSk3yvFJv6cDj8%2B6kck0Eadz4BOXz0ljrE1Vt%2BX2gItx86Fd8rldFG3TL7u99FKiuc1rN9OaBRJpPHL12fVP2gjuVUUIomqShmQYyKHbhGDuLKoCWq%2BdLkggz2eTJna6w9eWR7QMvpIJxc8sBGFT1WEm%2FsyA%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIA4NRRSZPHORHIVCFW/20220919/us-west-2/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220919T114402Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=8241ad05ecb5555cbbd4998b5c334104f2849bf4177384e86fbb5cc5d7e81ce8",
        "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/B6Z9J274GZ5BK5QYK547ST4T5WF61LNQ/output-split-by-barcode_page3-5.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=FwoGZXIvYXdzEK3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDH1Gv1Q88EtgGpfAYiKCAaQTLV5ot8KMblEXIEFzeznT8mOeGKylp0uktJk2Se8SK5r3nfQTJKa8JqJE0GcW9vOtcBPPqHcPZXf2iQkvSk3yvFJv6cDj8%2B6kck0Eadz4BOXz0ljrE1Vt%2BX2gItx86Fd8rldFG3TL7u99FKiuc1rN9OaBRJpPHL12fVP2gjuVUUIomqShmQYyKHbhGDuLKoCWq%2BdLkggz2eTJna6w9eWR7QMvpIJxc8sBGFT1WEm%2FsyA%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIA4NRRSZPHORHIVCFW/20220919/us-west-2/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220919T114402Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=94764cfb37819f2a4885ba064dd1ae20f38f42d6bc6c1a208010637fca74a591",
        "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/XT5TD1BDBFDNKX0LM6N5GLFLOAF1UC0Y/output-split-by-barcode_page7-9.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=FwoGZXIvYXdzEK3%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDH1Gv1Q88EtgGpfAYiKCAaQTLV5ot8KMblEXIEFzeznT8mOeGKylp0uktJk2Se8SK5r3nfQTJKa8JqJE0GcW9vOtcBPPqHcPZXf2iQkvSk3yvFJv6cDj8%2B6kck0Eadz4BOXz0ljrE1Vt%2BX2gItx86Fd8rldFG3TL7u99FKiuc1rN9OaBRJpPHL12fVP2gjuVUUIomqShmQYyKHbhGDuLKoCWq%2BdLkggz2eTJna6w9eWR7QMvpIJxc8sBGFT1WEm%2FsyA%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIA4NRRSZPHORHIVCFW/20220919/us-west-2/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220919T114402Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=0a7c90a05fd159659451d29273284fbf422d34bd204c07fbc9abdf7a36a84294"
    ],
    "pageCount": 10,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "output-split-by-barcode.pdf",
    "credits": 350,
    "duration": 4456,
    "remainingCredits": 98221710
}

CURL#

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/split2' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: ' \
--data-raw '{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/split_by_barcode.pdf",
    "searchString": "[[barcode:qrcode,datamatrix /bytescout\\.com/]]",
    "excludeKeyPages": true,
    "regexSearch": false,
    "caseSensitive": false,
    "inline": true,
    "name": "output-split-by-barcode",
    "async": false
}'

Code samples#

Footnotes

1(1,2)

Supports links from Google Drive, Dropbox, and PDF.co Built-In Files Storage. To upload files via the API check out the File Upload section. Note: If you experience intermittent Too Many Requests or Access Denied errors, please try to add cache: to enable built-in URL caching. (e.g cache:https://example.com/file1.pdf) For data security, you have the option to encrypt output files and decrypt input files. Learn more about user-controlled data encryption.

2(1,2)

Main response codes as follows:

Code

Description

200

Success

400

Bad request. Typically happens because of bad input parameters, or because the input URLs can’t be reached, possibly due to access restrictions like needing a login or password.

401

Unauthorized

402

Not enough credits

445

Timeout error. To process large documents or files please use asynchronous mode (set the async parameter to true) and then check status using the /job/check endpoint. If a file contains many pages then specify a page range using the pages parameter. The number of pages of the document can be obtained using the /pdf/info endpoint.

Note

For more see the complete list of available response codes.