Crop PDF

Crop PDF trims the edges of your pages. Enter how much to cut from the top, bottom, left and right in millimetres, check the live preview, and download a PDF without the extra white space.

What does cropping a PDF do?

Cropping a PDF trims the visible area of its pages. You choose how much to cut from each edge, and the new file shows only the part inside those margins. It is the PDF version of trimming a photo. Cropping is useful when a document has large white borders, scanner shadows, printer marks or unwanted headers that you do not want to see or print.

Popular reasons to crop PDF pages

• Remove wide white margins so the text appears larger on phones, tablets and e-readers.
• Clean up scans by cutting off the dark edges and shadows that flatbed scanners and phone cameras often leave.
• Remove printer marks such as crop marks and colour bars from print-ready files before sharing them as normal documents.
• Focus on one area of a page, for example a single chart, a map section or a receipt that was scanned on a large page.
• Prepare pages for slides or for inserting into another document where only the content area is needed.

How to crop with this tool

After selecting your file, you will see a preview of the first page. Enter the margins you want to remove from the top, bottom, left and right in millimetres. A dashed box on the preview shows the area that will be kept, and the darker area outside it will be removed. The preview updates as you type, so you can adjust the numbers until the box sits exactly where you want it.

By default the same crop is applied to every page. If only some pages need trimming, type their numbers in the Pages field, for example 1-4 or 2, 5, 9. The other pages are left unchanged. Pages that are displayed sideways are handled automatically: “top” always means the top of the page as you see it on screen.

Millimetres made easy

If you are not sure which values to use, here are some reference points. A typical office document printed on A4 or Letter paper has margins of about 20 to 25 millimetres. Cutting 15 millimetres from each side removes most of the white border while keeping a little breathing space around the text. One inch is 25.4 millimetres.

Important: cropping hides, it does not delete

PDF cropping works by changing the visible frame of each page. The content outside the frame is hidden, but it is still stored inside the file. Advanced PDF software could reveal it again. For normal use this does not matter, but you should never use cropping to remove private information such as account numbers, signatures or personal details. To remove sensitive content permanently, edit the original document and export a new PDF, or use a dedicated redaction tool.

Quality and privacy

Cropping does not change the content itself, so text stays sharp and selectable and images keep their quality. The file size usually stays about the same. Everything happens in your browser, and your file is never uploaded to our servers.

Tips

• Check the preview on a page with content close to the edges, such as a page with a wide table, before cropping the whole document.
• If your document has different page layouts, crop it in two passes with different page ranges.
• To change the paper size instead of trimming, use the Resize PDF tool.

How to use Crop PDF

1. Select your PDF file.
2. Enter the margins to cut and check the dashed box in the preview.
3. Click "Crop PDF" and download the cropped file.

Frequently asked questions

Is the cropped content deleted?

The area outside the crop box is hidden, not erased. Do not use cropping to hide private information. Delete it from the original instead.

Can I crop only some pages?

Yes. Type the page numbers, for example 1-3, 7, in the Pages field.

Why does the preview show only the first page?

The same margins are applied to every selected page, so the first page is used as a quick guide. Check a page with content near the edges if your pages differ.

Can I crop in inches?

Enter millimetres. One inch is 25.4 millimetres, so half an inch is about 13 millimetres.

Will cropping make my file smaller?

Usually not much, because the hidden content is still stored in the file. Use Compress PDF to reduce the size.

Is this tool really free?

Yes. All tools on this website are free to use, with no sign-up needed.

Are my files and data safe?

Yes. Everything is processed inside your own browser. Your files and text are not uploaded to our servers.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. The tools work on modern phones, tablets and computers.