Crop PDF
Crop PDF pages or trim their margins by drawing a box, free and in your browser with no upload. Apply it to one page, a range or the whole document; only the visible area changes, so text stays selectable.
Drag a rectangle over the page and apply it to one page, a range, or every page. Only the crop box is set, so nothing is re-rendered and text stays text.
In detail
Crop PDF lets you drag a rectangle over a rendered page and apply it to that page, a range you type, or the whole document. It sets the page's CropBox, which is the region a PDF reader displays, so nothing is re-rendered and text stays text.
When one rectangle is applied to pages of different sizes, it is laid on each as the same proportion of that page rather than as absolute points. Cropping hides what is outside the box rather than deleting it, so it is right for trimming margins and wrong for hiding secrets; to remove something for good, blur or redact the page as an image. Cropping does not make the file smaller either.
Crop PDF at a glance
- Input
- One PDF
- Output
- The same PDF with new crop boxes
- What it does
- Draw the crop on a rendered page
- Apply it to one page, a range or every page
- Aspect presets: square, A4, Letter, 4:3, 3:4 and 16:9
- Exact X, Y, width and height fields
- Text stays selectable
- Who it is for
- Anyone trimming scanner margins, cutting a page down to one figure, or fitting a document to a screen.
- Limits
- Content outside the crop is hidden, not deleted, and can be recovered.
- The file size does not change.
- Privacy
- Runs entirely in your browser: the PDF is never uploaded, and nothing is kept after you close the tab.
How to crop a PDF
- Open the PDF Drop the file onto the page. The first page renders as the stage you drag on.
- Drag the rectangle Draw a box, or drag its edges and corners. Arrow keys nudge it by a point and shift by ten, and the X, Y, width and height fields work in both directions.
- Choose a ratio, if you want one Free, square, A4, Letter, 4:3, 3:4 and 16:9 constrain the rectangle as you drag.
- Pick which pages change This page, every page, or a range you type. The list underneath names each page that will change and the size it becomes.
- Save The crop boxes are written and the document is handed back as a download.
Crop PDF: common questions
Does cropping a PDF delete the content outside the crop?
No, and this matters. Cropping sets the CropBox, which is the area a reader shows, while the MediaBox and everything drawn outside the new box remain in the file. It is correct for layout and wrong for secrecy: to remove something permanently, redact it or export the pages as images and rebuild.
Does cropping make the file smaller?
No. Nothing is re-encoded and no content is discarded, so a 40 MB scan cropped to a quarter of its area is still 40 MB. Use Compress PDF if size is the problem: by default it recompresses the images inside and keeps the text selectable.
What happens on a document with different page sizes?
The rectangle is stored as a proportion of the page you drew it on and applied as the same proportion of every other page, so a mixed A4 and A3 document comes out with different absolute sizes. The list under the page shows the size each page becomes before you save.