Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteIn a Next.js App Router project, receive the PDF in a Route Handler, use pdf-lib to copy the selected pages into a new document, then return the generated PDF bytes. Validate the upload and page selection before parsing, and check your hosting provider’s request, memory, and execution limits before accepting large files.
How PDF splitting works in a Next.js Route Handler
A Route Handler is a public HTTP endpoint. It can read an uploaded file from request.formData() and return a non-UI response such as a PDF file. For the App Router, create app/api/split/route.ts. Next.js documents this pattern in its backend-for-frontend guide.
pdf-lib works in Node.js and browsers and has no native dependencies, according to its project documentation. Its API supports copying pages from a loaded document into another document. Install it with your package manager; for npm, run:
npm install pdf-libBuild a single-PDF page extraction endpoint
This example accepts a multipart form with a PDF field named file and a comma-separated pages field. Page numbers are user-facing, 1-based numbers: for example, 1,3-5 extracts pages 1, 3, 4, and 5 into one output PDF. The code caps upload size and page count as application policy; adjust those limits to match your users and deployment, rather than treating them as universal platform limits.
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-
Create
app/api/split/route.ts. -
Install
pdf-libas shown above. -
Add the handler below. It validates the multipart fields, enforces a byte limit, checks the PDF signature as an additional sanity check, validates every requested page against the source page count, and returns a PDF response.
import { PDFDocument } from 'pdf-lib';
export const runtime = 'nodejs';
const MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES = 10 * 1024 * 1024;
const MAX_PAGES = 200;
function parsePages(value: string, pageCount: number): number[] | null {
const selected = new Set<number>();
const parts = value.split(',').map((part) => part.trim());
if (parts.length === 0 || parts.some((part) => part === '')) return null;
for (const part of parts) {
const match = /^(d+)(?:-(d+))?$/.exec(part);
if (!match) return null;
const start = Number(match[1]);
const end = match[2] ? Number(match[2]) : start;
if (!Number.isSafeInteger(start) || !Number.isSafeInteger(end)) return null;
if (start < 1 || end < start || end > pageCount) return null;
for (let page = start; page <= end; page++) selected.add(page - 1);
}
return [...selected].sort((a, b) => a - b);
}
export async function POST(request: Request) {
try {
const form = await request.formData();
const file = form.get('file');
const pagesValue = form.get('pages');
if (!(file instanceof File)) {
return Response.json({ error: 'Upload a PDF in the file field.' }, { status: 400 });
}
if (typeof pagesValue !== 'string' || pagesValue.length === 0) {
return Response.json({ error: 'Provide pages, such as 1,3-5.' }, { status: 400 });
}
if (file.size === 0 || file.size > MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES) {
return Response.json({ error: 'The uploaded file is empty or exceeds the upload limit.' }, { status: 413 });
}
const input = new Uint8Array(await file.arrayBuffer());
const signature = new TextDecoder().decode(input.subarray(0, 5));
if (signature !== '%PDF-') {
return Response.json({ error: 'The uploaded file does not appear to be a PDF.' }, { status: 415 });
}
const source = await PDFDocument.load(input);
const pageCount = source.getPageCount();
if (pageCount === 0 || pageCount > MAX_PAGES) {
return Response.json({ error: 'The PDF has no pages or exceeds the page limit.' }, { status: 400 });
}
const indices = parsePages(pagesValue, pageCount);
if (!indices || indices.length === 0) {
return Response.json({ error: 'Invalid page selection. Use page numbers and ascending ranges within the PDF.' }, { status: 400 });
}
const output = await PDFDocument.create();
const copied = await output.copyPages(source, indices);
for (const page of copied) output.addPage(page);
const bytes = await output.save();
return new Response(bytes, {
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/pdf',
'Content-Disposition': 'attachment; filename="pages.pdf"',
'Cache-Control': 'no-store',
},
});
} catch {
return Response.json({ error: 'Could not process this PDF.' }, { status: 400 });
}
}The signature check is not a complete security test or proof that a file is safe. Likewise, a browser-supplied MIME type and a filename extension are not reliable evidence of content. The validation is a basic gate; choose stricter controls based on your threat model and supported input set. Review the installed pdf-lib version’s behavior and API details in its PDFDocument API reference.
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Call the endpoint from a form
A minimal browser form can submit the file and page selection as multipart data:
const form = new FormData();
form.append('file', fileInput.files[0]);
form.append('pages', '1,3-5');
const response = await fetch('/api/split', { method: 'POST', body: form });
if (!response.ok) {
const result = await response.json();
throw new Error(result.error ?? 'PDF splitting failed');
}
const pdf = await response.blob();
const link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = URL.createObjectURL(pdf);
link.download = 'pages.pdf';
link.click();
URL.revokeObjectURL(link.href);Extract multiple PDFs or split every page
The endpoint above creates one output containing all selected pages. To create separate PDFs—for example, one file per page or one file per requested range—create a fresh PDFDocument for each output, call copyPages with that output’s indices, add the copied pages, and save each document. The pdf-lib API documents page copying; the packaging and delivery choice is an application decision.
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- Several downloads: return a manifest or provide separate download requests. This avoids building one large response, but requires a way to keep or regenerate outputs.
- One archive: package the PDFs in a ZIP and return it. Choose and validate an archive library separately; the cited PDF documentation does not prescribe one.
- Large jobs: consider asynchronous processing and object storage if the chosen host cannot comfortably process or return the files within its request limits.
Do not assume a generated file written to a local path will be available to a later request. Some hosting providers run Route Handlers as lambda functions, where writable filesystem access, shared data across requests, and long-running execution may be limited. Check your host’s current request size, memory, execution-time, and storage rules before choosing the delivery design.
Choose browser or server-side processing
pdf-lib supports both browser and Node.js use. There is no universal speed or safety winner established by the documentation; the choice depends on file sensitivity, device capacity, operational controls, and deployment constraints.
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| Consideration | Browser processing | Server processing |
|---|---|---|
| Does the original file leave the device? | Not if all processing is implemented locally; verify that your app does not upload it elsewhere. | Yes. The endpoint receives the uploaded bytes, so handle them as sensitive input. |
| Limits and responsiveness | Depends on the target device’s available memory and responsiveness, especially on mobile; test your intended file sizes and devices. | Bounded by your host’s request, memory, and execution limits. |
| Central policy and access control | Less centralized: validation and processing happen on the client. | Provides a central place for validation, authentication, authorization, and audit controls. |
| File delivery or retention | The browser can create the output locally for download. | You must decide how to return, store, or delete the output; avoid persistence without a reason. |
Validate uploads, protect the endpoint, and handle failures
Next.js warns: “Never trust incoming request data. Validate content type and size, and sanitize against XSS before use.” Its backend-for-frontend guide, labeled last updated March 25, 2026, also discusses timeouts, rate limiting, access control, and avoiding sensitive information in client-facing errors and logs.
- Enforce limits before expensive work: apply request-body and upload-size limits at the host or proxy as well as in the handler. Limit page counts, concurrent jobs, and processing time to suit your service.
- Treat the route as public: require authentication and authorization for restricted tools. Rate-limit public processing where abuse could consume resources.
- Keep errors safe: return useful but non-sensitive messages to the client; do not reveal stack traces or document contents. Avoid logging uploaded bytes, sensitive page data, or unnecessary identifiers.
- Avoid needless retention: process in memory when appropriate, and if you store uploads or results, define access, expiry, and cleanup behavior.
- Test your supported PDFs: the cited documentation does not establish universal compatibility for encrypted, malformed, signed, or form-heavy files. Decide what you support and handle failures without claiming every PDF can be split.
Troubleshooting common problems
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check or change |
|---|---|---|
| 400 response about missing file or pages | The multipart field names do not match the route, or the request omitted the selection. | Send a file field and a pages string, such as 1,3-5. |
| 413 response | The file exceeds the example’s configured byte limit or a platform limit. | Reduce the file size or deliberately adjust application policy after checking the hosting provider’s request limits. |
| 415 response | The initial bytes did not match the PDF signature check. | Confirm that the user selected a real PDF. Do not treat changing the filename or MIME type as a fix. |
| Invalid page selection | Page numbers are outside the document, use descending ranges, or contain unsupported syntax. | Use positive 1-based numbers and ascending ranges within the actual page count, for example 2-4,7. |
| Generic processing error | The document may be unreadable by the installed library version or the request may have failed during parsing or saving. | Test the file against your supported input policy, inspect server-side diagnostics without logging sensitive content, and verify the installed API/version. |
| Request times out or memory is exhausted | The upload or output is too demanding for the device or deployment environment. | Reduce allowed file/page sizes, test concurrency, or move large jobs to an architecture with suitable execution and storage limits. |
| Download is empty or unusable | The client handled a non-OK JSON error as a PDF, or output delivery failed. | Check response.ok before reading a blob and confirm the response content type is application/pdf. |
Or skip the browser setup
For website screenshots, ScreenshotNeo is a separate service—not a PDF-splitting library. It takes a URL and returns a screenshot or PDF with one GET request. Its clean-capture flow accepts cookie/consent banners like a visitor and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; those steps can be turned off. Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and response headers say which outcome occurred. Its MCP server provides take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf for AI agents and MCP clients.
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For a PDF capture of a webpage, the cURL request is:
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -d format=pdf -o page.pdfSee the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for request options. ScreenshotNeo’s free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. It captures webpages as PDFs, but it does not split an uploaded PDF. Sign up free to try ScreenshotNeo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can pdf-lib split a PDF in the browser as well as in Node.js?
Yes. Its project documentation lists support for browsers and Node.js; whether browser processing suits your users depends on their devices and your implementation.
Does this route preserve signatures or support every encrypted PDF?
The cited documentation does not establish universal support for encrypted, signed, malformed, or form-heavy PDFs. Define and test the input types your app will support.
Quick Recap
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