Crop PDF
Cut the white margins off a PDF — automatically, or by a set amount.
How to use the Crop PDF
- Select the PDF you want to crop.
- Leave it on automatic, or choose to trim a set number of millimetres.
- Click Crop PDF and download the trimmed file.
About the Crop PDF
Crop PDF cuts the empty border off a page so the content fills more of the screen. That is worth more than it sounds on a tablet or an e-reader, where a standard A4 margin can waste a third of the display, and it is the usual fix for a document that was laid out for print and is now only ever read.
Automatic is the default and works by looking at the pages rather than guessing. Each page is rendered at a low resolution, the outermost row and column that still carry ink are found, and the crop is set just outside them — plus whatever breathing space you ask for in the “white space to keep” box. Isolated specks are ignored on purpose, because one flake of scanner dust in a corner would otherwise pin the crop back to the paper edge and quietly undo the whole thing.
The default applies one crop to the whole document, taken from the widest extent of any page, so every page comes out the same size — which is what you want for anything that will be read in sequence. Cropping each page on its own trims tighter but leaves pages of different sizes, which suits a folder of scanned receipts and does not suit a book. If a page is inked edge to edge there is nothing to find, and the set-amount mode is the answer: it takes the same number of millimetres off all four sides regardless of what is on the page.
Two honest limitations. Cropping does not shrink the file — the content outside the new page is still in there, simply no longer drawn, so run compress PDF afterwards if size matters. And because pages are re-imported to build the cropped file, only visible content survives: bookmarks, form fields, annotations and internal links are dropped. Encrypted PDFs cannot be read at all. Your file is uploaded, processed under a random name in a folder blocked from web access, and deleted when the request ends. One file, 20 MB maximum; automatic detection is limited to 200 pages.
Frequently asked questions
How does the automatic mode find the margins?
It renders each page at a low resolution and looks for the outermost rows and columns that still have ink on them. The crop is set just outside those, with the margin you choose to keep added back on.
Why did nothing get cropped?
Because there was no white space to remove. A scan is usually one full-page image with the paper colour baked into it, so there is no blank border to find — use the set-amount mode on those and trim a fixed number of millimetres instead.
Will every page come out the same size?
On the default setting, yes: one crop is worked out from the whole document and applied to all pages. Choose “crop each page on its own” if you would rather have every page trimmed as tightly as possible, accepting that they will differ in size.
Does cropping make the file smaller?
No. The cropped-away content is still inside the file, it is just outside the visible page and no longer drawn. Run the result through compress PDF if you need the size down.
Can I crop only some pages?
Not directly. Split the PDF, crop the part you need, then merge it back together in order.
Are my files stored?
No. Your PDF is uploaded, cropped on the server, and every temporary file is deleted at the end of the request.