Crop PDF
Crop a PDF to cut away wide margins, scanner borders or a header you do not need. Type how much to take off each side.
How the files you choose are handled is set out in the privacy policy.
How to crop a PDF
- Tap Choose a PDF.
- Type how much to cut from each side. Leave a side at 0 to keep it as it is.
- To crop only some pages, type their numbers. Leave the box empty for all.
- Press Crop PDF, then Save PDF.
Working out the numbers
Margins are measured from the edge of the page inward. If a page has 25 mm of white space on every side and you want to leave 5 mm, cut 20 mm from each.
| Page | Size in millimetres | Size in inches |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | 210 × 297 | 8.27 × 11.69 |
| US Letter | 216 × 279 | 8.5 × 11 |
| A5 | 148 × 210 | 5.83 × 8.27 |
| US Legal | 216 × 356 | 8.5 × 14 |
If you are unsure, start small, look at the result and crop again. Two crops of 10 mm are the same as one of 20 mm. The page size shown by your PDF viewer under document properties tells you what you are starting from.
Reasons to crop
- Reading on a small screen. A paper or book page with wide margins shows tiny text on a phone or e-reader. Without the margins, the text fills the screen.
- Scans. A scanner bed larger than the document leaves a grey or black border on one or two sides.
- Printing several pages per sheet. Trimmed pages come out larger and easier to read at 2 or 4 to a sheet.
- Removing a strip. A fax header, a running title, a page number or a punched-hole shadow along one edge.
- Slides and figures. A chart exported with a large blank surround, to be placed in another document.
The same crop on every page
One set of margins is applied to all the pages you select. That suits documents whose pages share a layout. For a scan where left-hand and right-hand pages differ, crop the odd pages with one setting, save, then crop the even pages of the result with another.
Top, bottom, left and right mean what you see on screen. A page that is stored sideways inside the file, which is common in scans, is still cropped on the sides you expect.
Cropping hides. It does not erase
This is important if privacy is the reason. Cropping a PDF moves the edges of the page inward. Whatever lay outside the new edges is no longer shown or printed, but it is still stored in the file, and someone with PDF editing software can widen the page again and see it. Do not use cropping to conceal a name, an account number or a signature.
To truly drop content, convert the cropped pages to pictures with PDF to JPG and, if needed, build a new PDF from them with JPG to PDF. Only what is visible goes into the pictures.
What stays the same
Text remains selectable and searchable, pictures keep their quality, and links, bookmarks and form fields are kept. The file size hardly changes, for the reason given above. To make whole pages go away, use remove PDF pages.
Questions
How do I remove the white margins from a PDF?
Type how much to cut from each side in millimetres or inches and press Crop PDF. Start with a small amount and repeat if needed.
Can I crop just one page?
Yes. Type its number in the Pages to crop box.
Does cropping delete the hidden content?
No. It is hidden from view and from printing but remains in the file. Do not rely on cropping for privacy.
Can I crop different pages by different amounts?
One setting applies per run. Crop one group of pages, save, then crop another group of the saved file.
Does cropping reduce the file size?
Hardly, because nothing is removed from the file.