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Crop PDF

Crop PDF pages by drawing the area you want to keep, or by typing a margin for each side. Drag a box on the large page preview and the Top, Right, Bottom and Left values fill in, or type them in millimetres, centimetres, inches or points. Auto-crop finds the white margins for you, as one box for all pages or a separate box per page. You can crop every page, odd or even pages, a list such as 1, 3-5, or give single pages their own crop. Common uses are trimming scanner borders so text fills an e-reader screen, or cutting white margins off slides. The tool sets each page's crop box, and the file is processed in your browser without an upload.

Always freeNo sign upRuns in your browser

How to use

01

Upload the PDF

Drop your file on the upload area. The first page opens in a large preview, with thumbnails of all pages below it. Click any thumbnail to show that page in the large preview.

02

Set the crop area

Drag on the large preview, type Top, Right, Bottom and Left values, or click an Auto-crop button. Switch units, and choose All, Odd, Even or Custom pages, or give one page its own crop.

03

Crop and download

Check the dashed outline on each thumbnail, then click Crop & download. The file saves as yourfile-cropped.pdf, with a new crop box on every page you chose to crop.

Why Crop PDF

What cropping changes inside a PDF

Every PDF page has a media box, which is the full sheet, and can have a crop box, which is the part viewers show and print. This tool writes a new crop box for each page you choose. It does not cut away or delete anything.

That has a few practical effects. The file size stays about the same, because text and images outside the crop are still stored. The crop can be undone in most PDF editors by resetting the crop box. And the hidden area can still be found by anyone who looks, so cropping is not a way to remove private details.

Margins are measured from the page as you see it. If a page is stored with a rotation, the tool still trims the side that looks like the top on screen. Running the tool again on a cropped file measures from the current visible area, so crops add up.

Crop margin units and common values

PDF files measure everything in points, where 72 points make one inch. The tool lets you type margins in millimetres, centimetres, inches or points and converts between them when you switch units. The table lists handy values and two common page sizes for reference. Point values are rounded to whole numbers.

MeasureMillimetresInchesPoints
Small margin5 mm0.2 in14 pt
Default in this tool10 mm0.39 in28 pt
Quarter inch6.35 mm0.25 in18 pt
Half inch12.7 mm0.5 in36 pt
One inch25.4 mm1 in72 pt
A4 page210 x 297 mm8.27 x 11.69 in595 x 842 pt
US Letter page215.9 x 279.4 mm8.5 x 11 in612 x 792 pt

Common questions

How do I crop a PDF page for free?
Upload the PDF, drag a box on the large preview around the part you want to keep, and click Crop & download. There is no charge, account or watermark. The cropped copy downloads with -cropped added to the file name.
Can I crop only one page of a PDF?
Yes. Under Pages to crop, choose Custom and type the page number, for example 4. Only that page gets the new crop box, and every other page stays exactly as it was.
How do I remove white margins from a PDF?
Click Auto-crop, same box for all pages to trim the white space every page shares, or Auto-crop each page separately to hug the content of each page. Space to keep around content leaves a small border. The tool looks at a small drawing of each page, so check the thumbnails before you download.
Does cropping a PDF reduce file size?
No, or only by a few bytes. Cropping changes which part of each page is shown, but the content outside the crop box stays in the file. If size is the problem, run the cropped file through Compress PDF.
Does cropping remove the content outside the box?
No, it hides it. Anyone with a PDF editor can reset the crop box and see the full page again. Never use cropping to hide sensitive information; remove or black out that content with a proper redaction tool instead.
Can I crop a scanned PDF?
Yes. A scanned page is an image inside a PDF page, and the crop box trims it the same way as any other page. The hidden part of the scan is still stored in the file, so the crop is reversible.
How many points equal the margin I want to crop?
One inch is 72 points, one centimetre is about 28.35 points and one millimetre is about 2.83 points. You rarely need to convert, though, because the unit buttons switch the margin boxes between mm, cm, inches and points and convert the values for you.
Why is the crop different on pages of different sizes?
The margins are fixed distances, not percentages. A 20 mm margin removes 20 mm from each side of every page, which is a bigger share of a small page than of a large one. For mixed documents, use Auto-crop each page separately, or give the odd-sized pages their own crop.
Can every page get a different crop margin?
Yes. Click a thumbnail, then Give page N its own crop, and draw a box on the large preview for that page alone. Its thumbnail is labelled own. Auto-crop each page separately does the same for every page in one pass. Clear all own crops returns every page to the shared margins.
Will a cropped PDF display correctly on an e-reader?
Most PDF readers and reading apps show only the crop box, so less border means the text is scaled up to fill more of the screen. Check the result on your own device before cropping a long book, since reading apps differ.

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