Crop PDF pages
Keep the part of each page you actually need. Without wide margins, text reads larger on a phone, and a trimmed scan loses its dark edge.
Add one PDF file to crop.
or drop a file here
Only the visible area shrinks; content outside it stays in the file.
Your PDF is handled inside this browser tab and is never uploaded.
How to use it
- Press ‘Choose a file’ and open the PDF. A preview of page 1 appears with a frame on it.
- Set the frame by dragging its edges or corners, or drag inside it to move it. You can also type the margins in millimeters under ‘Top’, ‘Bottom’, ‘Left’ and ‘Right’.
- Press ‘Find margins’ and the frame closes in on whatever is printed on the page you are looking at. ‘Next page’ and ‘Previous page’ let you check the others.
- Under ‘Pages to crop’, keep ‘All pages’, or choose ‘Page range’ and type pages such as 1-3, 5.
- Press ‘Crop PDF’, then ‘Download’. ‘Reset’ clears the margins if you want to begin again.
What it does
Drag it or type it
The frame on the preview and the four margin boxes move together: change one and the other follows. Typed margins are in millimeters.
A frame that finds the content
‘Find margins’ looks at the page on screen for anything that is not close to white and sets the frame around it with about 3 mm to spare. If the page is empty, the tool tells you there is no content to find.
Measured from each page's own edges
A left margin of 15 mm takes 15 mm off the left edge of every page you chose, wherever the text sits on that page. Limit the crop to a ‘Page range’ when only part of the document needs it.
Check page by page
‘Previous page’ and ‘Next page’ step through the document with the frame drawn on each page. The caption tells you which page you are on, so you can find the fullest one before you press ‘Find margins’.
A floor on how small a page gets
At least half an inch (12.7 mm) of the page is always kept. A page in your range that would end up smaller than that is left as it was, and the tool tells you how many were skipped.
Content stays untouched
Cropping changes only the window each page shows through. Text remains text and images keep their sharpness, because nothing is redrawn.
Good to know
Cropping helps in a few everyday cases. A journal article with a thick white border reads better on a phone once the border is gone. A scanned tax form with a dark strip from the scanner bed looks cleaner trimmed. Slides prepared as a handout can lose an empty band along the bottom.
The cut-off part is hidden, not erased. The visible area gets smaller, but text and pictures outside the frame are still inside the file, where a PDF editor can bring them back, and the file size hardly changes. If something has to be gone for good, such as a name or an account number in the margin, use Redact PDF instead.
‘Find margins’ judges only the page on screen. Page numbers, running headers and shadows count as content, and a gray or dark scan background can make the whole page look like content, so drag the frame by hand in those cases. When the layout differs from page to page, step through the pages first, or crop in two rounds with ‘Page range’.
Questions and answers
How do I crop the white margins off a PDF?
Open the file, press ‘Find margins’ (or drag the frame to taste), then press ‘Crop PDF’. The cropped copy downloads with -cropped added to the file name.
Can I crop only some of the pages?
Yes. Under ‘Pages to crop’ choose ‘Page range’ and type the pages, for example 1-3, 5. The rest stay exactly as they were.
Can each page have a different crop?
Not in one pass: the margins you set apply to every page in the range. Crop one group of pages, open the result again, and crop the next range with other margins.
Is the cut-off area deleted, and does the file get smaller?
No to both. The page's visible window gets smaller, but the rest of the content stays in the file, so the size hardly changes. Redact PDF removes content for good.
‘Find margins’ did not fit well. What should I do?
If it is off, nudge the frame by hand, or go to the fullest page and press the button again. The tool counts anything that is not close to white, page numbers included, as content.
Why were some pages left uncropped?
A page that would be left under half an inch wide or tall is skipped, and the status line says how many. Use smaller margins, or limit ‘Page range’ to pages of the same size.