How to use the remove blank pages from pdf
- Choose a PDF or drop it on the box. Up to 500 pages and 25 MB are accepted. Nothing is uploaded.
- Pick a method. Pages with no content finds pages that hold no text, pictures or drawing at all. Pages that look blank draws each page and counts the dark pixels, which also catches scanned pages with faint specks.
- For the second method pick a sensitivity. Strict removes only pages that are almost perfectly clean, and lenient also removes pages with a few small marks.
- Read the list of pages. Untick any page you want to keep, tick any you want to remove, then press Remove ticked pages and download.
How the sensitivity levels work
In the looks-blank method each page is drawn at about 300 pixels wide. For a Letter page that is 300 by 388 pixels, or 116,400 pixels in all. The Normal setting counts a page as blank when at most 0.05% of the pixels are visibly dark, which is about 58 pixels. A single small speck passes, while a line of text does not.
Strict allows only about 6 dark pixels on the same picture, and lenient allows about 349. A pixel counts as dark when its brightness, after mixing with a white background, is below 235 on a scale where 255 is white.
Two ways to decide
The no-content method reads the drawing instructions of each page. A page is empty when it has no visible text, no pictures, no filled or stroked shapes and no annotations. It is exact for pages made by software, but a page that only contains a white rectangle counts as having content.
The looks-blank method does not care how the page was built. It checks how the finished page looks, so it handles scans where every page holds a picture, including pictures of empty paper.
Check the list before you download
Automatic detection can be wrong. A page with only a page number, a faint watermark or a very light drawing may be called blank in lenient mode, and a clean scan may keep a gray tint from the paper. The list shows what each page contains so you can overrule any row, and the tool refuses to remove every page.
To reorder or delete pages by hand, use organize PDF pages. To cut a file into pieces use split PDF, and to join cleaned files use merge PDF.
Assumptions and limits
- Pages are drawn at low resolution only to measure darkness. The saved file uses the original pages, so quality is not reduced.
- Annotations and form fields count as content, so a page with an empty form field is not called blank.
- Text with white or transparent color is not visible, so the looks-blank method ignores it while the no-content method counts it.
- Bookmarks that point to a removed page are dropped, because the kept pages are copied into a new file.
Frequently asked questions
How do I delete the blank back sides from a scanned PDF?
Use the looks-blank method. Scanned pages contain a picture even when empty, so only the drawn result tells you the page has no marks. Check the list, then download.
Will this remove pages that have only a page number?
In the no-content method no, because the number is text. In the looks-blank method at lenient sensitivity it might, so look at the list and untick those pages.
Does removing blank pages change the quality of the other pages?
No. The remaining pages are copied unchanged into a new file. The low resolution drawing is used only to measure how dark each page is.
What if every page looks blank?
The tool will not create an empty file. If all pages are ticked it asks you to keep at least one, and if nothing is ticked it reports that no pages are selected.