Remove Pages from PDFs

Document Engine lets you delete pages of a document by sending a multipart request to the /api/build endpoint and attaching the input file(s) and the instructions JSON.

This guide will present some examples of removing pages from PDFs.

Before you get started, make sure Document Engine is up and running.

You’ll be sending multipart POST requests with instructions to Document Engine’s /api/build endpoint. To learn more about multipart requests, refer to our blog post on the topic, A Brief Tour of Multipart Requests.

Check out the API Reference to learn more about the /api/build endpoint and all the actions you can perform on PDFs with Document Engine.

Removing Pages of a File on Disk

To remove the first and sixth page of a PDF document, send a request with the following to the /api/build endpoint:

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/build \
  -H "Authorization: Token token=<API token>" \
  -F document=@/path/to/example-document.pdf \
  -F instructions='{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 1,
        "end": 4
      }
    },
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 6,
        "end": 7
      }
    }
  ]
}' \
  -o result.pdf
POST /api/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=customboundary
Authorization: Token token=<API token>

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="example-document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

<PDF data>
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 1,
        "end": 4
      }
    },
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 6,
        "end": 7
      }
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary--

Removing Pages of a File from a URL

In addition to the path to the file, the multipart request also accepts input documents using a URL:

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/build \
  -H "Authorization: Token token=<API token>" \
  -F instructions='{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": {
        "url": "http://pspdfkit.com/guides/processor/files/8-page-example-document.pdf"
      },
      "pages": {
        "start": 1,
        "end": 4
      }
    },
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 6,
        "end": 7
      }
    }
  ]
}' \
  -o result.pdf
POST /api/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=customboundary
Authorization: Token token=<API token>

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": {
        "url": "http://pspdfkit.com/guides/processor/files/8-page-example-document.pdf"
      },
      "pages": {
        "start": 1,
        "end": 4
      }
    },
    {
      "file": "document",
      "pages": {
        "start": 6,
        "end": 7
      }
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary--