How it works
Frame
Drag the handles on any page, or type the margins to remove. The label on the box shows the resulting page size in millimetres.
Or trim automatically
The tool measures where the ink ends on the page and sets the box there with a 2 mm margin. Turn on per-page trimming to measure every page separately.
Choose the pages and the mode
All pages, this page, or a range; shift-click pages in the rail to build a range. Permanent shrinks the page itself, reversible records the crop so it can be undone later.
Crop and download
The box is written to the pages you chose. Content is not re-rendered, so text stays sharp and selectable.
Margins can be typed to half a millimetre.
Cropping sets a box; the page content is untouched.
Sideways pages are cropped in the frame you see, not the frame stored.
MediaBox and CropBox
Every PDF page has a MediaBox, the full extent of the page, and may have a CropBox, the region a reader should display. Most files have no CropBox at all, so the two are the same. When you crop in reversible mode, the tool writes a CropBox and leaves the MediaBox alone: the hidden margins are still in the file, and any tool that resets the CropBox brings them back. In permanent mode both boxes are set to the new area, so the page really is smaller. Choose permanent when the cropped file is the final deliverable, reversible when you might want the margins back.
Neither mode removes content. Text and images beyond the crop are still in the file, which matters if the reason for cropping is to hide something. To remove content, use the redaction tool.
How automatic trimming works
The page is drawn at low resolution and scanned for the first and last rows and columns that are not close to white. Two millimetres are added on each side so descenders and underlines are not clipped. It works well on text pages and scans with a clean background. A scan with a grey border, a page with a background colour, or a faint speck near the edge will keep the box larger than you expect; drag the handle in afterwards.
With Trim each page by its own content on, each page is measured separately at save time, so a mixed set of pages with different margins all end up tight. Off, the box you see is applied to every page in the range.
Why a cropped page can still print with margins
Printing scales the CropBox to the paper, and printers have a physical margin they cannot print into. Cropping the white space away makes the content larger on paper, which is usually the point, but the printer's own margin returns around it. To print without any border you need a printer that supports borderless printing, not a differently cropped file.
The tool is right above
Everything on this page runs in your browser. Scroll up, drop the file, and keep it on your machine.
Common questions
What people ask before they press the button.
01Does cropping reduce quality?
No. The crop is a box written to the page. Text, images and vector graphics are exactly as they were.
02Can I crop just one page?
Yes. Choose This page, or type a range such as 2-5, 8, or shift-click pages in the rail to build the range.
03Can I undo a crop later?
In reversible mode, yes: the full page stays in the file and another tool can reset the crop. In permanent mode the page size itself is changed.
04Does it work on rotated pages?
Yes. The box you draw is in the orientation you see, and it is converted to the page's stored coordinates when saved.
05Does the crop hide sensitive content?
No. Content outside the box is still in the file and can be recovered. Use the redaction tool to remove it.
06Are files uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser on your device.