Crop PDF

Trim margins from PDF pages in points or percent — per side, per range.

Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded — your input is processed on this device and discarded when you close the tab.

Your file

Drop a PDF here or click to browse. One file at a time, up to 50 MB. Everything is processed on this device only — no file is uploaded.

Margin units Points (72 points = 1 inch) Percent of each page's own size

Left margin to trim

Right margin to trim

Top margin to trim

Bottom margin to trim

Page range (optional)

Comma-separated pages and ranges numbered from 1. Blank means the whole document. A crop must leave at least 36 points standing on each axis.

Also set the MediaBox to the same rectangle (for older tools that ignore the CropBox)

Crop PDF

Scanned documents arrive with a fat white border the scanner added. Exports from presentation software carry margins meant for a projector, not a page. And a document assembled from several sources often mixes page trims that were never meant to sit together. Cropping is how you take those margins back: this tool trims a set amount from the left, right, top and bottom of each page, so the content fills more of the page when it is viewed and printed. You give the margins in points or as a percentage of each page's own size, apply it to the whole document or a page range, and download the result — all in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

One thing must be said before anything else, because other tools blur it: cropping a PDF with this tool changes which part of each page is shown, by setting the page's CropBox. It does not cut the hidden content out of the file. Text and images outside the crop are still inside the document, invisible in viewers but recoverable by anyone who resets the crop. That makes this tool right for tidying layout and wrong for removing sensitive content — the limitations section below is blunt about the difference, because using a crop where a redaction was needed is a genuine and common accident.

How to use Crop PDF

1. Add your PDF. Drop it onto the workspace or click to browse. One file at a time, up to 50 MB. The tool reports the page count and the first page's size in points, which is the reference for judging your margins.
2. Choose your units. Points are absolute (72 points = 1 inch) and suit documents whose pages are all one size. Percent trims each page by a share of its own width or height, which suits mixed-size documents where the same point value would bite too hard on a small page.
3. Enter the four margins. Left, right, top and bottom are set independently, so a scan that sits crooked in its border can be trimmed harder on one side than the others. Each value is the amount to remove from that side.
4. Decide about the MediaBox. Leave the checkbox unticked for normal work. Tick it only when a specific older program in your chain ignores the CropBox and keeps showing the full page — the copy below explains the difference.
5. Optionally restrict the range. Enter comma-separated pages or ranges (for example 2-6) when only part of the document needs trimming, and leave the box blank to crop every page the same way.
6. Crop and verify. The status line reports how many pages were cropped and the resulting page size in points. Open the download in a viewer and check the tightest page — the one whose content comes closest to an edge — before trusting the batch.

Features

• Independent margins for the left, right, top and bottom of every page.
• Two unit modes: absolute points, or percent of each page's own dimensions.
• Per-page calculation: in percent mode a large page and a small page each lose the same proportion, not the same points.
• An optional page range, so a scanned section inside a born-digital document can be trimmed on its own.
• An optional MediaBox update for workflows with older tools that read the MediaBox instead of the CropBox.
• A safety floor: a crop must leave at least 36 points standing on each axis, and the tool refuses margins that would breach it, naming the offending page rather than producing a sliver of a document.
• Validation happens for every page before any page is changed, so a bad margin fails the whole job cleanly instead of half-cropping the file.
• Processing runs entirely in the browser; the original file is never modified.

Worked example

Take a three-page A4 document (595 × 842 points) and trim 36 points — a half inch — from every side, in points mode, all pages. Every page's CropBox becomes exactly 523 × 770 points, starting 36 points in from the left and bottom edges, while each page's MediaBox stays at the original 595 × 842. The test suite for this tool runs this job and reads the saved CropBoxes back: all three pages report x 36, y 36, width 523, height 770, precisely as set. In percent mode the same document at 10% on all sides starts each crop at 59.5 points from the left (10% of 595) and 84.2 points from the bottom (10% of 842) — the tests verify those figures too, including that a wider second page crops from its own width, not the first page's.

Common errors and limitations

• A crop is not a redaction. Content outside the CropBox remains in the file, hidden from normal view but present, and another tool can reveal it by resetting the crop. Never use this tool to remove names, figures or anything else that must actually be gone; that needs a redaction tool that rewrites the page content.
• File size barely changes. Because nothing is deleted, cropping a scanned page does not remove the image data outside the crop, and the download is roughly the same size as the original.
• Margins are the same for every selected page (per page in percent mode, but the same percentages). The tool cannot auto-detect where content begins on each page — there is no "trim all white space" analysis — so a document whose pages are each offset differently needs separate runs with the range box.
• A crop must leave at least 36 points on each axis; margins that would leave less are refused.
• Password-protected PDFs cannot be opened here; remove the password in the app that created the file first.
• The file cap is 50 MB and one document at a time, because the job runs in your browser tab.

• Cropping away something sensitive and sending the file. The hidden content is still in the document. Fix: if it must be gone, redact it with a tool built for that, then check the file size and content afterwards — do not rely on a crop.
• Ticking the MediaBox option "to be safe". Most modern viewers and printers honour the CropBox, and changing the MediaBox as well can confuse imposition and print software that expects the MediaBox to describe the full sheet. Fix: leave it unticked unless a named program in your workflow has shown you it ignores the CropBox.
• Using points on a mixed-size document. Thirty-six points is a modest trim on A4 and a deep cut on a small label page. Fix: switch to percent mode, which trims each page in proportion to its own size.
• Judging the crop from the first page. The first page often has the widest margins (a title page, a cover). Fix: check the page with the densest content before running the whole document; if that page survives the margin, the rest will.

Frequently asked questions

Related PDF tools

Prefer everything on one page? The original PDF Toolkit merges, splits and rearranges with one shared file list. The full suite is indexed on the PDF Tools hub.

How it works

Crop PDF trims the margins of PDF pages in your browser, using points or percent as the unit. You set how much to remove from the left, right, top, and bottom, and apply that trim to all pages or to a chosen page range. Points suit precise print work — 72 points make one inch — while percent suits scans where each page may be a different size, since the same percentage trims proportionally on every page. The tool adjusts each page's visible area, and you download a new cropped copy while the original stays unchanged. Processing runs entirely in your browser, so the document never leaves your device. Check a page from the middle of the document as well as the first, because scans and mixed layouts can place content nearer the edge on later pages than the opening page suggests.

Another worked example

A fictional teacher, Jordan Patel, has a scanned class handout with a thick dark border from the scanner lid. Jordan opens the handout, sets a 4 percent trim on all four sides, and applies it to every page. Input: a ten-page scan with uneven dark edges. Result: a ten-page PDF whose visible area excludes the dark border, with the text untouched and the page count unchanged. Jordan checks a middle page before printing, since a larger trim would have started cutting into the text near the edges.

More limitations to know

A crop is not a redaction. Content outside the visible area remains in the file, hidden from normal view but present, and another tool can reveal it by resetting the crop — so never use cropping to remove names, figures, or anything else that must actually be gone. File size barely changes for the same reason: nothing is deleted, so cropping a scanned page does not remove the image data outside the crop. The same margins apply to every selected page, and the tool cannot auto-detect where content begins on each page, so check pages with different layouts before applying a wide trim.

More frequently asked questions

Does cropping make my file smaller?

Barely. Nothing is deleted, so the download is roughly the same size as the original.

Can I crop away sensitive text so nobody can see it?

No. Hidden content stays in the file and can be revealed. Use a redaction tool for anything that must truly be removed.

Should I use points or percent?

Use points for precise, same-size pages and percent when pages differ in size, since percent trims proportionally.

Can each page have different margins?

No. The same margins apply to every page in the selected range.

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