#  `burst`

Split a single PDF into multiple files
## Usage
> pdftl `<input>` `burst` `[split_spec...]` `[output` `<template>]`

## Details
The `burst` operation splits a single input PDF into multiple
single-page PDF files, or into multiple files containing consecutive
runs of pages with given split points, or split points based on
bookmarks and/or a file size limit.

An optional output template can be provided.

`split_spec` is an optional page specification, giving the 'split
points', i.e.,, the initial page of each split chunk. The list of
split points will be sorted and deduplicated before it is used, so
order is irrelevant here. If omitted, burst defaults to splitting into
single pages (equivalent to `split_spec` being `1-end`).

You can also use `level<n>` as a `split_spec`, where `<n>` is a
positive integer, to choose all bookmarks (a.k.a. outlines) at level
up to n as split points. Similarly, `level<n>only` splits using only
bookmarks at level `<n>`.

What is a bookmark level? The highest level of the bookmark hierarchy
is level 1, and this is the level of the root of the bookmark tree and
its siblings. Children of these bookmark items have level 2, and so
on.

You can also specify `size<limit>` as one `split_spec` to burst the
PDF into chunks that do not exceed a given file size, at least
approximately, where possible. The file size limit can be specified in
bytes, kilobytes (K/KB), or megabytes (M/MB). For example, `size5M` or
`size500K`.  Size bursting can be combined with standard split points,
in which case chunks may be sub-divided to fit into the given size
limit.
## Examples

> Burst a file into page_1.pdf, page_2.pdf, etc.
```
pdftl my.pdf burst
```

> Burst a file into single-page files out0001.pdf, out0002.pdf, etc.
```
pdftl my.pdf burst output out%04d.pdf
```

> Burst a file into files with split points from the bookmarks at levels 1 and 2
```
pdftl my.pdf burst level2 output out%04d.pdf
```

> Burst a file into files with split points from the bookmarks at level 2 only
```
pdftl my.pdf burst level2only output out%04d.pdf
```

> Burst a file into chunks out0001.pdf with pages 1-3, out0002.pdf with pages 4-6, etc.
```
pdftl my.pdf burst step3 output out%04d.pdf
```

> Burst a file into chunks that are approximately 5 Megabytes or smaller.
```
pdftl my.pdf burst size5M output chunk%02d.pdf
```

> Burst a file into chunks with pages 1-3, 4-6, etc., subdividing as needed to make files of size at most 250kb
```
pdftl my.pdf burst step3 size250kb output out%04d.pdf
```


**Tags**: from_scratch

*Source: pdftl.operations.burst*

*Read online: [https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operations/burst.html](https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operations/burst.html)*

*Type: Operation*