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Split by Bookmarks Online Free — PrivaTools

TL;DR: Upload a PDF with bookmarks and download a ZIP with one PDF per chapter — perfect for breaking textbooks or manuals apart.

Split PDF by bookmarks or chapters automatically. Detect table of contents entries and create separate PDFs for each section. Ideal for splitting textbooks, manuals, and reports. Free, private, no sign-up.

Split by Bookmarks is one of 179+ free file utilities on PrivaTools. The entire stack is open source under the MIT license, so the privacy guarantees can be audited end-to-end. You can also run all 179 tools on your own infrastructure with one docker compose command.

How to Split by Bookmarks with PrivaTools

  1. Upload a PDF with bookmarks — Drop a PDF whose Table of Contents uses bookmarks to mark chapters/sections.
  2. PrivaTools splits at every top-level bookmark — Each section between consecutive bookmarks becomes its own PDF file.
  3. Download the ZIP — Each chapter is named after its bookmark text (sanitized for filesystem safety).

Frequently Asked Questions

What if the PDF has no bookmarks?

The tool returns an error. Use the regular Split tool or the new Split by Text tool which doesn't need bookmarks.

Does it use nested sub-bookmarks?

No — only top-level bookmarks define split points. Sub-sections stay within their parent chapter PDF.

Can I include the bookmark title as the PDF title?

Each output PDF inherits its starting bookmark's title as the file name. The internal PDF Title metadata is set to match.

Last reviewed 2026-05-01 by the PrivaTools maintainers. Source code on (MIT-licensed, self-hostable).

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