> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pdf4llm.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Page Selection
> Use the pages parameter to extract content from specific pages rather than processing an entire document.
## Overview
By default, PyMuPDF4LLM processes every page in a document. The `pages` parameter lets you specify exactly which pages to extract — as a list of zero-based page indices. It is supported by `to_markdown()`, `to_json()`, and `to_text()`.
```python theme={null}
import pymupdf4llm
# Extract only the first three pages
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=[0, 1, 2])
```
***
## Zero-Based Indexing
Page numbers in PyMuPDF4LLM are **zero-based** — the first page of a document is page `0`, the second is page `1`, and so on.
| Document Page | `pages` Index |
| ------------- | ------------- |
| Page 1 | `0` |
| Page 2 | `1` |
| Page 10 | `9` |
| Last page | `n - 1` |
Passing a page index that doesn't exist in the document will raise an error. Always check the document's page count (`doc.page_count`) before constructing a dynamic page list.
***
## Common Patterns
### First N Pages
```python theme={null}
n = 5
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=list(range(n)))
```
### Last N Pages
```python theme={null}
import pymupdf
doc = pymupdf.open("document.pdf")
page_count = doc.page_count
last_5 = list(range(page_count - 5, page_count))
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=last_5)
```
### A Specific Range
```python theme={null}
# Pages 10–19 (zero-based)
pages = list(range(10, 20))
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=pages)
```
### Non-Contiguous Pages
```python theme={null}
# Cover page, table of contents, and appendix
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=[0, 1, 47, 48, 49])
```
### Every Other Page
```python theme={null}
# Even pages only (0, 2, 4, ...)
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=list(range(0, 50, 2)))
```
***
## Getting the Page Count
Use PyMuPDF directly to inspect a document's page count before building your `pages` list:
```python theme={null}
import pymupdf
import pymupdf4llm
doc = pymupdf.open("document.pdf")
print(f"Total pages: {doc.page_count}")
# Extract the second half of the document
midpoint = doc.page_count // 2
pages = list(range(midpoint, doc.page_count))
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown("document.pdf", pages=pages)
```
***
## Page Selection with Page Chunks
When using `page_chunks=True`, the returned list will only contain chunks for the pages you specified. Chunk metadata preserves the original page number from the document:
```python theme={null}
chunks = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown(
"document.pdf",
pages=[4, 5, 6],
page_chunks=True
)
for chunk in chunks:
print(f"Page {chunk['metadata']['page']}: {len(chunk['text'])} chars")
# Page 4: 1842 chars
# Page 5: 2103 chars
# Page 6: 987 chars
```
The `page` value in chunk metadata reflects the **original document page number**, not the position in the returned list. Page 4 in the document is always reported as `4`, regardless of how many pages were skipped.
***
## Page Selection with to\_json() and to\_text()
The `pages` parameter works identically across all three extraction functions:
```python theme={null}
# JSON output — specific pages only
data = pymupdf4llm.to_json("document.pdf", pages=[0, 1, 2])
# Plain text — specific pages only
text = pymupdf4llm.to_text("document.pdf", pages=[0, 1, 2])
```
***
## Processing a Document in Batches
For very large documents, you may want to process pages in batches to manage memory usage:
```python theme={null}
import pymupdf
import pymupdf4llm
from pathlib import Path
doc = pymupdf.open("large-document.pdf")
batch_size = 20
results = []
for start in range(0, doc.page_count, batch_size):
batch = list(range(start, min(start + batch_size, doc.page_count)))
print(f"Processing pages {batch[0]}–{batch[-1]}...")
chunk = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown(doc, pages=batch)
results.append(chunk)
full_text = "\n\n".join(results)
Path("output.md").write_text(full_text, encoding="utf-8")
print(f"Done. {doc.page_count} pages processed.")
```
***
## Skipping Blank or Cover Pages
Combine page selection with a quick content check to skip pages that return no meaningful text:
```python theme={null}
import pymupdf
import pymupdf4llm
doc = pymupdf.open("document.pdf")
# Find pages that have selectable text
non_blank = [
i for i in range(doc.page_count)
if doc[i].get_text().strip()
]
print(f"{len(non_blank)} of {doc.page_count} pages contain text")
md_text = pymupdf4llm.to_markdown(doc, pages=non_blank)
```
***
The `pages` parameter is supported by `to_markdown()`, `to_json()`, and `to_text()`. For full API signatures see the [API Reference](/python/api/).
***
## Next Steps
Write extracted pages to .md, .json, and .txt files.
Full walkthrough of to\_markdown() with all common options.
Bounding boxes and layout data for custom pipelines.
Control automatic OCR behaviour and adaptors.