Reorder PDF Pages

This tool works from a typed list, not from thumbnails or dragging. You write down every page you want in the result, in the order you want them. Pages you do not mention are dropped.

1. Drag one PDF onto the box, or click the box to choose it. Password-protected files are rejected.
2. Find out how many pages the file has, because the list refers to the final page too.
3. Type the full order in New page order (e.g. 3, 1, 2, 5-8, last), separating items with commas.
4. Press Reorder pages.
5. Read the note, for example "6 pages in the new order (original had 6)". It also lists any items that were ignored. Download the file, which is named after your original with -reordered added, and scroll through it to check.

The list accepts a page number, a range, and the words first, last and end (the last two mean the final page). A range such as 5-8 keeps the order, while 8-5 reverses it. Write a range with no spaces around the hyphen. These examples show how it works:

The last row gives a seven-page file, because page 1 appears twice. Repeating a page is allowed, which is handy for a cover or a form that needs several copies. The result note counts the pages in the new file and compares it with the original.

The most frequent mistake is to type only the page you want to move. If a 6-page file gets the order 5, 1, the result has just two pages, because every page you leave out is dropped. To move one page you must list all the pages you want to keep, as in 5, 1-4, 6.

Other points to remember:

• Items that are not valid, or that fall outside the file, are ignored and named in the note. A list with a stray character may therefore give a shorter file than you expected, so read the note.
• There is no thumbnail view and no drag and drop. If you cannot remember what is on each page, open the file in a viewer first and write the page numbers down.
• The pages are copied with the pdf-lib library, not redrawn. Text, links and fonts stay as they were. Annotations that point at other pages and bookmarks may not follow the new order.
• A list that would produce more than 1,000 pages is refused as too long.

To drop pages rather than move them, use delete PDF pages, which takes a list of the pages to remove. To pull out a section into its own file, use split PDF.

Reordering is often one step in cleaning up a document. If you scanned a double-sided stack in two passes, you may end up with odd pages first and even pages second. Joining two files with merge PDF and then reordering the result is a common way to put such a scan back in sequence. If a page came out sideways, fix it with rotate PDF.

Do the numbering last. The add page numbers tool stamps a sequence over the current page order, so numbers added before reordering would end up out of sequence.

A short planning habit prevents most errors. Write the target order on paper, count the pages in it, and compare that count with the figure in the result note. If the two differ, an item was ignored or you left a page out. Run the original file again with a corrected list, because your source file is never changed. Everything is done inside your browser and nothing is uploaded.