Crop PDF margins
Crop margins off every page or set a custom crop box. Useful for cleaning up scanned documents or fitting a target page size.
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Cropping a PDF trims away unwanted margins, whitespace, or scanned-edge artifacts so the actual content fills the page. PDFs that come out of older scanners, especially flatbed devices, often have wide white borders or even shadow strips along one edge — cropping makes the document look professional and saves space when printed. Apply a uniform trim to every page, or set a custom crop box for precision. Lossless: the underlying content isn't re-rendered, just the visible region is changed.
How to crop pdf step by step
- 1
Upload your PDF
Drop the PDF you want to crop. Up to 100 MB free, 200 MB on Pro.
- 2
Pick crop mode
Uniform: trim the same amount from all four sides (in PDF points; 1 inch = 72 points, 1 cm ≈ 28 points). Custom: specify exact crop box coordinates (origin: bottom-left, x/y/width/height in points).
- 3
Click Crop and download
We use pdf-lib to set the CropBox on each page — a metadata-level change in the PDF page tree. The result is instant for any size PDF and content quality is unchanged.
Why crop pdf on PDFOnly
Lossless cropping
We change the page's CropBox, not the underlying content. Text, fonts, and images are preserved exactly. Most online tools rasterize and re-encode, which loses quality.
Custom crop boxes
Most free croppers only do uniform margins. We support precise crop boxes when you need exact dimensions for a printer, an output spec, or a bleed area.
Per-page targeting (planned)
Most cropping use cases want all-pages, but we're adding per-page variation for documents where margins differ between sections (e.g. cover vs body).
What people use crop pdf for
A few common scenarios. If your workflow looks like one of these, this tool is a good fit.
Clean up edge shadows from a flatbed scanner
Old scanners often leave a 1-inch dark strip along one edge. Crop 25-30 mm from the affected side to make the document presentable.
Standardize a mixed-size PDF for printing
If your PDF has both A4 and Letter pages (common after merging documents from different sources), crop to a consistent size so everything prints uniformly.
Remove margins to fit more on screen
When you're reading PDFs on a small tablet, wide margins waste pixels. Crop them out to maximize the readable area.
Tighten margins for a printer with limited paper sizes
Some printers can't handle full-bleed printing. Crop the PDF margins down to within the printer's printable area to avoid content getting clipped.
What you get
- Two modes: uniform margin trim (same amount from every side) or custom crop box (exact dimensions)
- Apply to every page or specific page ranges
- Lossless — the page content isn't re-rendered, just the crop box changes
- Perfect for cleaning up scanned documents with messy edges
- Standardize mixed-size PDFs to one uniform page size
- Free, no signup, no watermarks
Frequently asked questions
Does cropping remove content I cropped out?
No — by default, cropping changes the visible area only. The original content remains in the underlying file (just hidden by the crop box). To permanently remove the cropped-out content (e.g. for redaction), run Compress PDF after cropping; it rasterizes the visible region and discards the rest.
What units does the crop tool use?
PDF points: 1 inch = 72 points, 1 cm ≈ 28.35 points. So a 25 mm margin crop = 71 points. The custom-box mode uses x/y/width/height in points with origin at the bottom-left of the page.
Will cropping affect text or image quality?
No. We change the visible page region, not the underlying content. Text remains selectable and searchable, images are not re-encoded.
Can I undo a crop?
If you set the original CropBox back to the MediaBox dimensions, the cropped content reappears (because it's still in the file). Easier: keep your original PDF before cropping. Once you re-save through Compress PDF, the cropped content is permanently gone.
Can I crop different amounts on different pages?
Not yet in the web UI — uniform crop applies to every page in your selected range. For per-page variation, run the tool multiple times with different page ranges, or use the API for full programmatic control.
Will cropped pages print correctly?
Yes. Most printers honor the CropBox. If your printer ignores it and prints the full media size with the cropped-out area as white, that's a printer/driver setting — usually 'fit to page' or 'crop to printable area' will fix it.
What's the difference between MediaBox and CropBox?
MediaBox is the physical page size (the paper). CropBox is the visible viewing area (what readers/printers display). Cropping with us changes only the CropBox; the MediaBox is untouched. To also resize the physical page, use a custom crop box that becomes the new MediaBox.
Ready to crop pdf?
Free to use for the basics. Files are auto-deleted within an hour and never used to train AI.
Open Crop PDF