Remove blank pages from a scanned PDF, and keep the ones that only look blank

Why is every other page blank?

The scanner read both sides of single-sided originals. Duplex mode is the right setting for a stack with print on both sides, and the wrong one for a stack of single-sided letters: every sheet gives a page of print and a page of nothing.

Two fixes, depending on whether you scan again:

• Next time, at the scanner. Scan single-sided stacks in single-sided mode, or switch on the scanner software’s own blank page setting. Epson Scan 2 calls it Skip Blank Page, with levels from Very Low (only truly blank pages) to High (pages with pen marks and show-through too); Epson’s support pages note you may need to try several levels (checked on 11 October 2026). Other makers have the same idea under other names.
• For the file you already have, the tool on this page.

How do I remove the blank pages, step by step?

1. Drop the scan on the tool above. Several files, or a whole folder, work too: each is checked on its own.
2. Pick what blank means under Blank means:
   • Empty: only pages with no ink at all.
   • Nearly empty: a few specks allowed. This is where the tool starts.
   • Scanned blank: dust, punch holes and faint show-through allowed, as on the backs of a real scan.
3. Press Remove blank pages. Each page is drawn small and its clearly dark pixels are counted; a page under the limit, and with no text on it, is taken out.
4. Read the result. It says, for example, Removed 5 blank pages, then the file and the page numbers: removed pages 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
5. Download PDF. The file is named after yours with -no-blanks added. A file with nothing to remove comes back as it was, with a line that says so.

There is no preview grid to untick pages in. The check is the list of page numbers: if a number on it surprises you, look at that page in your original, which is still on your device, unchanged.

What counts as blank? What we measured

A scanned blank page is never pure white. There is paper grain, a grey cast, dust, punch holes and the text on the other side showing through. The tool counts only clearly dark pixels, so paper tint and light show-through do not count at all; specks, holes and pen strokes do.

To see where the 3 settings draw the line, we made a 13-page test scan: 6 printed pages, 6 backs of different kinds, and 1 typed page, at 150 dpi in colour. This is what each setting removed:

Read the bold cells twice. A back with initials or a signature is mostly empty paper, and to a pixel count it looks like a dusty blank. That is why the result lists every page it removed: on a stack of signed forms, check the list, or use Empty and remove the dusty backs by number.

The typed page shows the rule that protects digital documents: a page with real text on it is never removed, however little ink it has. A scan made searchable with OCR has a text layer, so remove blanks before you run OCR, not after; otherwise a back with show-through can carry a few OCR words and be kept. The guide on making a scan searchable covers OCR.

Speed: 120 scanned pages took about 3 seconds with Scanned blank in our test run on a mid-range laptop.

When the blanks are exactly every second page

If the scan is strictly print, blank, print, blank, you can also delete the even pages by number in Delete PDF pages: type 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 in Pages and press Delete pages. That is certain rather than measured, and it keeps the file’s bookmarks, taking out only those that pointed at a deleted page. It has no “even pages” shortcut, so on a 200-page scan typing 100 numbers is slower than letting Remove blank pages find them and checking the list.

For a handful of stray blanks in a long file, Organise PDF lists every page with a Remove button. A stack that also came out backwards can be fixed in the same pass with Reverse the order; see the backwards scan guide.

The honest part: what it cannot tell apart

• Faint content on a scan. A page with 1 pencil note, a light stamp or a signature can read as blank, as the table shows. The tool never removes a page silently: the numbers are listed, and the original is not changed. Look before you send.
• Show-through that is dark. If the other side’s print shows through strongly, the back is not blank to a pixel count, and it stays. Run with Scanned blank, then delete what is left by number.
• Every page blank. If every page of a file looks blank, the tool stops and removes nothing, and suggests a stricter setting: the pages may hold very faint content.
• No preview or slider. The 3 settings are the control. If none fits your scanner, use the setting that keeps too many and delete the rest by number.

Everything runs in your browser: the scan is read, checked and saved on your device, and nothing is uploaded. Run the tool once, turn Wi-Fi off, and it still works.