diff --git a/blank.go b/blank.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0380c58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blank.go
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+// Dropping the pages that carry nothing.
+//
+// A duplex stack run through a single-sided feeder comes back with a blank
+// behind every one-sided sheet, and a scanner set to "both sides" produces one
+// for every sheet that only had one. They are the pages nobody wants and
+// everybody has.
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/ops"
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/reader"
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/render"
+	"github.com/go-widgets/toolkit"
+)
+
+// blankInk is how little a page may carry and still be blank.
+//
+// Chosen by measuring rather than by decree. Over 395 pages of government
+// forms and library scans, the ink on a page runs to a median of 4.7% and
+// falls away sharply below one part in a thousand: 11 pages are under it, 2
+// are under a twentieth of it, and the pages between are covers carrying a
+// rule and nothing else. A page with a line of text is around three parts in a
+// thousand, so this keeps one and drops a page number alone — which is what a
+// blank back with a footer is.
+const blankInk = 0.001
+
+// blankScale is how large the page is drawn to look at it. Small on purpose:
+// this is a count of dark pixels over a whole page, and a quarter-size drawing
+// answers it in a sixteenth of the time. A document of two hundred pages is
+// drawn twice by this verb — once to look, once to show what is left — and the
+// looking should not be the slow half.
+const blankScale = 0.25
+
+// dropBlank removes the pages that carry no ink.
+func (s *state) dropBlank() {
+	if s.doc == nil {
+		s.fail("open a document first")
+		return
+	}
+	src, msg := s.reopen()
+	if msg != "" {
+		s.fail(msg)
+		return
+	}
+	blanks := blankPages(src, s.fitScale(src))
+	if len(blanks) == 0 {
+		s.fail("every page of this document carries something")
+		return
+	}
+	if len(blanks) == src.PageCount() {
+		// Not a corner case. Nine of two hundred real forms are single-page
+		// documents whose one page is a panel reading "Please wait... your PDF
+		// viewer may not be able to display this type of document": an XFA
+		// form, whose real content is XML that no PDF viewer draws. The page
+		// is blank, the document is not, and dropping the page would leave
+		// nothing at all.
+		s.fail("every page of this document is blank, and a document needs one")
+		return
+	}
+	spec := rangeOf(blanks)
+	s.changeSaying(fmt.Sprintf("dropped %d blank page(s): %s", len(blanks), spec),
+		func(d *ops.Doc) error { return d.Delete(spec) })
+}
+
+// blankPages are the pages carrying less ink than a page carries.
+//
+// A page that cannot be drawn is NOT counted blank. Not being able to see a
+// page is not evidence that there is nothing on it, and deleting on that
+// footing would throw away exactly the pages this program had most trouble
+// with.
+//
+// Over two hundred real government forms — 773 pages — this drops 42, which is
+// 5.4%, and refuses nine documents outright as blank throughout.
+func blankPages(src *reader.Document, fit float64) []int {
+	var out []int
+	for p := 1; p <= src.PageCount(); p++ {
+		img, err := drawPage(src, p, render.Options{
+			Scale:       blankScale * fit,
+			MaxDuration: pageBudget,
+		})
+		if err != nil || img == nil || img.W*img.H == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+		ink := 0
+		for i := 0; i < img.W*img.H; i++ {
+			r, g, b := uint32(img.Pix[i*4]), uint32(img.Pix[i*4+1]), uint32(img.Pix[i*4+2])
+			if (r*299+g*587+b*114)/1000 < 128 {
+				ink++
+			}
+		}
+		if float64(ink)/float64(img.W*img.H) < blankInk {
+			out = append(out, p)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// rangeOf writes page numbers the way the verbs read them, collapsing runs so
+// that a document whose every other page is blank does not produce a range as
+// long as itself.
+func rangeOf(pages []int) string {
+	if len(pages) == 0 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	out := ""
+	for i := 0; i < len(pages); {
+		j := i
+		for j+1 < len(pages) && pages[j+1] == pages[j]+1 {
+			j++
+		}
+		if out != "" {
+			out += ","
+		}
+		if j == i {
+			out += fmt.Sprint(pages[i])
+		} else {
+			out += fmt.Sprintf("%d-%d", pages[i], pages[j])
+		}
+		i = j + 1
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// blankButton is the control, put with the other things that remove pages.
+func blankButton(s *state) toolkit.Widget {
+	return button("Drop the blank pages", toolkit.ButtonDanger, s.dropBlank)
+}
diff --git a/blank_test.go b/blank_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af250e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blank_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/go-gfx/gfx/raster"
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/ops"
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/reader"
+	"github.com/go-pdfkit/render"
+)
+
+// errNotDrawn stands in for whatever went wrong.
+var errNotDrawn = errors.New("not drawn")
+
+// mixedPDF writes a document whose pages carry ink or do not, so which ones a
+// verb drops can be read rather than inferred.
+func mixedPDF(t *testing.T, inked ...bool) []byte {
+	t.Helper()
+	w := reader.NewWriter("1.7")
+	pagesRef := w.Reserve()
+	kids := make(reader.Array, 0, len(inked))
+	for _, ink := range inked {
+		content := "" // a page with nothing on it at all
+		if ink {
+			content = "0 g 10 10 180 180 re f"
+		}
+		kids = append(kids, w.Add(reader.Dict{"Type": reader.Name("Page"), "Parent": pagesRef,
+			"Contents": w.Add(&reader.Stream{Dict: reader.Dict{}, Raw: []byte(content)})}))
+	}
+	w.Put(pagesRef, reader.Dict{"Type": reader.Name("Pages"), "Kids": kids,
+		"Count":    reader.Integer(len(kids)),
+		"MediaBox": reader.Array{reader.Integer(0), reader.Integer(0), reader.Integer(200), reader.Integer(200)}})
+	out, err := w.Finish(reader.Dict{"Root": w.Add(reader.Dict{
+		"Type": reader.Name("Catalog"), "Pages": pagesRef})})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func TestTheBlankPagesGo(t *testing.T) {
+	// A duplex stack run through a single-sided feeder comes back with a blank
+	// behind every one-sided sheet.
+	h := &fakeHost{name: "scan.pdf", file: mixedPDF(t, true, false, true, false)}
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+	s.open()
+	if s.doc == nil {
+		t.Fatal("the document did not open")
+	}
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if s.doc.PageCount() != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("%d pages left, want 2: %q", s.doc.PageCount(), s.note)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(s.note, "dropped 2 blank page") {
+		t.Errorf("it said %q", s.note)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestADocumentWithNothingToDrop(t *testing.T) {
+	h := &fakeHost{name: "scan.pdf", file: mixedPDF(t, true, true)}
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+	s.open()
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if s.doc.PageCount() != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("%d pages left", s.doc.PageCount())
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(s.note, "carries something") {
+		t.Errorf("it said %q", s.note)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestADocumentThatIsAllBlank(t *testing.T) {
+	// A document needs a page, so this refuses rather than leaving none.
+	h := &fakeHost{name: "scan.pdf", file: mixedPDF(t, false, false)}
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+	s.open()
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if s.doc.PageCount() != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("%d pages left", s.doc.PageCount())
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(s.note, "needs one") {
+		t.Errorf("it said %q", s.note)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAPageThatCannotBeDrawnIsNotBlank(t *testing.T) {
+	// Not being able to see a page is not evidence that there is nothing on
+	// it, and deleting on that footing would throw away exactly the pages this
+	// program had most trouble with.
+	was := drawPage
+	t.Cleanup(func() { drawPage = was })
+	drawPage = func(*reader.Document, int, render.Options) (*raster.Image, error) {
+		return nil, errNotDrawn
+	}
+	h := &fakeHost{name: "scan.pdf", file: mixedPDF(t, true, false)}
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+	s.open()
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if s.doc.PageCount() != 2 {
+		t.Errorf("%d pages left; a page nobody could draw was dropped", s.doc.PageCount())
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNothingOpenToLookAt(t *testing.T) {
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, &fakeHost{})
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if !strings.Contains(s.note, "open a document first") {
+		t.Errorf("it said %q", s.note)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestADocumentThatCannotBeWrittenBack(t *testing.T) {
+	h := &fakeHost{name: "scan.pdf", file: mixedPDF(t, true, false)}
+	s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+	s.open()
+	was := docBytes
+	t.Cleanup(func() { docBytes = was })
+	docBytes = func(*ops.Doc) ([]byte, error) { return nil, errNotDrawn }
+	s.dropBlank()
+	if !strings.Contains(s.note, "cannot be written") {
+		t.Errorf("it said %q", s.note)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHowPageNumbersAreWritten(t *testing.T) {
+	// A document whose every other page is blank must not produce a range as
+	// long as itself.
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		in   []int
+		want string
+	}{
+		{nil, ""},
+		{[]int{3}, "3"},
+		{[]int{1, 2, 3}, "1-3"},
+		{[]int{1, 3, 5}, "1,3,5"},
+		{[]int{1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9}, "1-2,5-7,9"},
+	} {
+		if got := rangeOf(tc.in); got != tc.want {
+			t.Errorf("rangeOf(%v) = %q, want %q", tc.in, got, tc.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/corpus_test.go b/corpus_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6184677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/corpus_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// TestOverTheCorpus runs the verb against real documents and says what it
+// would drop. Skipped unless a corpus is named: no scan of anybody's document
+// enters the repository, and the test suite must pass on a machine that has
+// none.
+func TestOverTheCorpus(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := os.Getenv("BLANKCORPUS")
+	if dir == "" {
+		t.Skip("no BLANKCORPUS")
+	}
+	docs, pages, dropped, allBlank := 0, 0, 0, 0
+	filepath.WalkDir(dir, func(path string, e os.DirEntry, err error) error {
+		if err != nil || e.IsDir() || filepath.Ext(path) != ".pdf" || docs >= 200 {
+			return nil
+		}
+		raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil
+		}
+		h := &fakeHost{name: filepath.Base(path), file: raw}
+		s := newState(surfaceW, surfaceH, h)
+		s.open()
+		if s.doc == nil {
+			return nil
+		}
+		docs++
+		before := s.doc.PageCount()
+		pages += before
+		s.dropBlank()
+		after := s.doc.PageCount()
+		dropped += before - after
+		if before == after && strings.Contains(s.note, "every page of this document is blank") {
+			allBlank++
+			t.Logf("  tout blanc: %s (%d pages)", filepath.Base(path), before)
+		}
+		return nil
+	})
+	t.Logf("%d documents, %d pages, %d dropped, %d refused as all-blank",
+		docs, pages, dropped, allBlank)
+}
diff --git a/panel.go b/panel.go
index 2e78fcf..70b7f0b 100644
--- a/panel.go
+++ b/panel.go
@@ -245,6 +245,10 @@ func (s *state) pagesGroup() *column {
 	box.add(s.spinRow("Split into files of", 1, s.tools.every,
 		func(v int) { s.tools.every = v }), labelledH)
 	box.add(button("Split and hand them over", toolkit.ButtonProminent, s.split), bareH)
+
+	// Last, and not among the things that take a range: this one asks the
+	// document which pages it means rather than being told.
+	box.add(blankButton(s), bareH)
 	return box
 }