Merge and Split PDFs in Python, Rust, Go
Binding coverage. PDF merge is available in Python, Rust, and Go. Splitting via
extract_pagesis currently Python + Rust only. The C# and WASM bindings do not yet expose these editor operations — use the Rust CLI (pdf-oxide merge,pdf-oxide split) as a workaround, or call through one of the supported bindings.
Merge two PDFs into one:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("main.pdf")
doc.merge_from("appendix.pdf")
doc.save("combined.pdf")
WASM
import { WasmPdfDocument } from "pdf-oxide-wasm";
// Load both PDFs as Uint8Array
const mainDoc = new WasmPdfDocument(mainBytes);
const appendixDoc = new WasmPdfDocument(appendixBytes);
// Extract text from both and process as needed
const allText = mainDoc.extractAllText() + "\n" + appendixDoc.extractAllText();
mainDoc.free();
appendixDoc.free();
Rust
use pdf_oxide::editor::DocumentEditor;
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("main.pdf")?;
editor.merge_from("appendix.pdf")?;
editor.save("combined.pdf")?;
Go
package main
import (
"log"
pdfoxide "github.com/yfedoseev/pdf_oxide/go"
)
func main() {
editor, err := pdfoxide.OpenEditor("main.pdf")
if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
defer editor.Close()
if _, err := editor.MergeFrom("appendix.pdf"); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
if err := editor.Save("combined.pdf"); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
}
PDF Oxide handles page merging at the PDF object level — fonts, images, and annotations are preserved correctly across documents.
Installation
pip install pdf_oxide
Merge PDFs
Merge All Pages
Append every page from a second PDF to the first:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("report.pdf")
doc.merge_from("charts.pdf")
doc.save("full-report.pdf")
WASM
// WASM API: load and process multiple documents
const report = new WasmPdfDocument(reportBytes);
const charts = new WasmPdfDocument(chartsBytes);
// Process both documents together
const fullText = report.extractAllText() + "\n" + charts.extractAllText();
report.free();
charts.free();
Rust
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("report.pdf")?;
let pages_added = editor.merge_from("charts.pdf")?;
println!("Added {} pages", pages_added);
editor.save("full-report.pdf")?;
Go
editor, _ := pdfoxide.OpenEditor("report.pdf")
defer editor.Close()
added, _ := editor.MergeFrom("charts.pdf")
fmt.Printf("Added %d pages\n", added)
_ = editor.Save("full-report.pdf")
Merge Multiple Files
Use the static Pdf.merge() method to combine several PDFs in one call:
Python
from pdf_oxide import Pdf
pdf = Pdf.merge(["intro.pdf", "chapter1.pdf", "chapter2.pdf", "appendix.pdf"])
pdf.save("book.pdf")
You can also chain merge_from() calls on an existing document:
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("intro.pdf")
for f in ["chapter1.pdf", "chapter2.pdf", "appendix.pdf"]:
doc.merge_from(f)
doc.save("book.pdf")
WASM
// Load and process multiple PDFs sequentially
const files = [introBytes, ch1Bytes, ch2Bytes, appendixBytes];
const allText = [];
for (const bytes of files) {
const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
allText.push(doc.extractAllText());
doc.free();
}
console.log(allText.join("\n"));
Rust
let files = ["intro.pdf", "chapter1.pdf", "chapter2.pdf", "appendix.pdf"];
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open(files[0])?;
for f in &files[1..] {
editor.merge_from(f)?;
}
editor.save("book.pdf")?;
Go
// Top-level Merge returns the combined PDF bytes in one call
bytes, err := pdfoxide.Merge([]string{
"intro.pdf", "chapter1.pdf", "chapter2.pdf", "appendix.pdf",
})
if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
_ = os.WriteFile("book.pdf", bytes, 0644)
Merge Specific Pages
Select which pages to merge from the source document:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("main.pdf")
# Merge only pages 0, 2, and 4 from source
doc.merge_pages_from("source.pdf", [0, 2, 4])
doc.save("selected.pdf")
Rust
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("main.pdf")?;
editor.merge_pages_from("source.pdf", &[0, 2, 4])?;
editor.save("selected.pdf")?;
Split PDFs
Extract Pages to a New File
Pull specific pages out of a large document:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("book.pdf")
doc.extract_pages([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], "chapter1.pdf")
WASM
// Extract text from specific pages
const doc = new WasmPdfDocument(bytes);
const pages = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4];
for (const i of pages) {
const text = doc.extractText(i);
console.log(`Page ${i + 1}: ${text.slice(0, 80)}...`);
}
doc.free();
Rust
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("book.pdf")?;
editor.extract_pages(&[0, 1, 2, 3, 4], "chapter1.pdf")?;
Split Into Individual Pages
Save each page as a separate file:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("document.pdf")
for i in range(doc.page_count()):
doc.extract_pages([i], f"page_{i + 1}.pdf")
Rust
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("document.pdf")?;
let page_count = editor.page_count()?;
for i in 0..page_count {
editor.extract_pages(&[i], &format!("page_{}.pdf", i + 1))?;
}
Split Into Chunks
Split a large PDF into smaller files of N pages each:
Python
from pdf_oxide import PdfDocument
doc = PdfDocument("large.pdf")
chunk_size = 10
for start in range(0, doc.page_count(), chunk_size):
end = min(start + chunk_size, doc.page_count())
pages = list(range(start, end))
doc.extract_pages(pages, f"chunk_{start // chunk_size + 1}.pdf")
Rust
let mut editor = DocumentEditor::open("large.pdf")?;
let page_count = editor.page_count()?;
let chunk_size = 10;
for start in (0..page_count).step_by(chunk_size) {
let end = (start + chunk_size).min(page_count);
let pages: Vec<usize> = (start..end).collect();
editor.extract_pages(&pages, &format!("chunk_{}.pdf", start / chunk_size + 1))?;
}
Related Pages
- Page Operations — rotation, cropping, and reordering
- Batch Processing — parallel processing patterns
- Getting Started with Python — installation and basics