Remove Blank Pages from PDF
Drop in a PDF and every page is checked for ink. Empty pages, and near-blank scanned backs with a little noise, are marked for removal so you can review them before saving a clean copy. Nothing is uploaded.
Pages marked in red will be removed. Click a page to keep or remove it. The percentage is the ink coverage.
How to use the Remove Blank Pages from PDF
- Open your PDF by dropping it on the box or clicking to choose it. Every page is analyzed in your browser.
- Review the result. Pages marked in red with a ✕ were detected as blank; each thumbnail shows its ink coverage.
- Adjust the sensitivity if needed. Raise it to also catch pages with only a page number or a stray mark; lower it to remove only completely empty pages. Tick Ignore faint marks for scans.
- Click a page to override the detection and keep or remove it.
- Press Remove blank pages & download to save the cleaned PDF.
Choosing the right sensitivity
Every page is given an ink coverage: the share of the page that is noticeably darker or lighter than the paper. The sensitivity sets the highest coverage a page may have and still count as blank. These are typical values (A4 or Letter page, edges ignored):
| Page content | Typical ink coverage | Removed from |
|---|---|---|
| Completely empty page | 0% | Strict |
| Page number or a stray dot only | 0 to 0.03% | Very low / Low |
| Scanned blank back side with dust and noise | 0.01 to 0.1% | Normal (default) |
| "This page intentionally left blank" | about 0.2% | Medium |
| A heading only, such as a chapter title | 0.2 to 0.4% | High |
| A short paragraph of text | 1% or more | Not removed |
| A full page of text | 8 to 20% | Not removed |
The exact percentage of every page is printed under its thumbnail, so you can move the slider just above the pages you want gone. The result updates instantly without checking the pages again.
Tips for scanned documents
- Duplex scans of single-sided originals produce a blank back after every page. The Normal setting usually catches all of them in one go.
- Ignore faint marks skips light gray noise and text that shows through from the other side of thin paper (bleed-through). Turn it on when scanned blank pages show more than 0.1% ink.
- Ignore page edges skips an 8% band on the left and right and 6% at the top and bottom, where scanner shadows, staples and punch holes usually appear. Turn it off if you want a page with only a footer or page number to count as content.
- Dark or colored pages (for example a solid cover) are never treated as blank, even though they have no text.
How it works
Each page is rendered to a small image of about 320 pixels wide. The tool takes the median brightness as the paper color and counts the pixels whose brightness differs from it by more than about 19% (38% with Ignore faint marks). Rendering at low resolution averages away single dust specks and JPEG noise while text lines still register clearly. When you save, the pages you marked are removed from the original file; the remaining pages are copied unchanged, not re-rendered.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove blank pages from a PDF?
Open the PDF above. The tool renders each page, measures how much of it is covered by ink, and marks pages below the threshold as blank. Check the highlighted pages, click any you want to keep, and press Remove blank pages & download to save a copy without them.
How does blank page detection work?
Each page is rendered to a small image. The tool finds the paper color (the most common brightness on the page) and counts the pixels that differ from it by more than a set amount. That share is the ink coverage. A page with ink coverage below the sensitivity threshold is treated as blank.
Will it detect blank pages in scanned documents?
Yes. Scanned blank pages are never perfectly white, so tick Ignore faint marks to skip light gray noise and bleed-through, and keep Ignore page edges on to skip scanner shadows and punch holes. Small dust specks fall below the default threshold.
Will a page with only a page number be removed?
At the default setting a page with just a page number is usually detected as blank, because it covers only a tiny fraction of the page. Choose the Strict sensitivity to remove only pages that are completely empty, and always check the thumbnails before saving.
Does it change the pages that remain?
No. The remaining pages are copied unchanged, so text stays selectable, links keep working and images keep their original resolution. Only the removed pages are left out of the new file.
Is there a page limit?
No fixed limit. Each page is rendered at low resolution for the check, so even documents with several hundred pages are analyzed in a minute or less on a typical computer.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The PDF is analyzed and edited entirely in your browser with JavaScript, so the document never leaves your device.