Crop a PDF

Trim the white space off the edges of a document. Useful for scans with big borders, and for academic papers that waste half a small screen on margins.

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How to crop a PDF

STEP 1

Add the PDF

Drop it above. The first page appears so you can see what you are trimming.

STEP 2

Pull the edges in

Move one slider to trim all four edges evenly, or untick the box to set each edge on its own. Step through the pages to check a few before committing.

STEP 3

Save it

Leave the pages box empty to crop the whole document, or name the pages you want, like 2, 4-6.

Nothing is actually deleted

A PDF page carries a crop box, which tells a reader which part of the page to display and print. Cropping here moves that box inward. The content outside it is still in the file, it is simply no longer shown.

That has two consequences worth knowing. The good one is that it is reversible and adds nothing to the file size, so an aggressive crop for reading on a phone costs you nothing and can be undone. The other is that it is not a way to remove sensitive information from the edge of a page, because the content is still there for anyone who looks properly.

For reading on a small screen this is the single most effective change you can make to a paper. A typical journal article gives up a fifth of its height to margins, and reclaiming that is the difference between readable and not on a phone.

Questions

Is my file uploaded anywhere?

No. The work happens inside this tab, on your own machine. Open your browser's network tab while you use the tool, there is no request carrying your file.

Is there a file size limit?

None set by us. Very large files are limited only by your device's memory, and we warn you before that becomes a problem.

Do I need an account?

No, and there is no daily limit either. There is nothing to sign up for.

Does cropping make the file smaller?

No. It changes which part of each page is shown, and the content stays in the file, so the size is about the same.

Can I crop different pages differently?

Yes. Set the trim you want, name those pages in the box, and save. Run it again with different settings for another set of pages.

Can I use this to hide something at the edge of a page?

No, and please do not. The content is still in the file, it is only hidden from view. To remove something properly, export the pages as images first.

Next, you might want to

Rotate & reorderFix orientation, drag pages aroundPage numbersNumber the pages of a documentSplit PDFPull out pages or break one file apartCompress PDFGet under an email or upload limit