Crop PDF pages — drag a box or type the margins to trim

How to use the PDF cropper

1. Drop a PDF onto the box or press Choose a file. Page 1 appears with a crop box 10 mm in from each edge; the trimmed area is shaded.
2. Drag the box to move it and drag its round corner handle to resize it. Or type values in Top, Bottom, Left and Right (mm, in steps of 0.5).
3. With the box focused, the arrow keys move it and Alt + arrows resize it; hold Shift for bigger steps.
4. Choose All pages or This page only, and use ‹ › to check other pages. The line beside the page box shows the change, for example Page 210 × 297 mm → 190 × 277 mm.
5. Press Crop and download the file, named with -cropped added.

What it does and when to use it

Cropping helps when the useful part of a page is surrounded by clutter:

• Wide white margins on e-books or papers that make the text tiny on a phone or e-reader.
• Scans with dark edges, a scanner lid shadow or part of the next page visible.
• Slides exported to PDF with a frame or speaker area around each slide.
• A chart or table you want to drop into another document without the rest of the page.

To add space instead of removing it, use the PDF margin tool. To put every page onto one standard paper size, use the PDF page resizer.

How it works

The preview is drawn with pdf.js (pdfjs-dist) in your browser; if the PDF needs standard font or character-map data it does not include, pdf.js may download it from cdn.jsdelivr.net. When you press Crop, your margins go to a background worker, where pdf-lib (@cantoo/pdf-lib) sets each chosen page’s crop box and trim box to the area inside the margins. Margins are measured on the page as displayed, so a rotated page is trimmed on the sides you see. Your file is not uploaded.

Worked examples

Even trim on an A4 report. Leave the margins at 10 mm and choose All pages. The note reads Page 210 × 297 mm → 190 × 277 mm. The result’s summary is Pages cropped, followed by a reminder that the hidden content is still in the file.

Remove a footer strip from page 1 only. Set Top 0, Left 0, Right 0 and Bottom 30, choose This page only on page 1. Only page 1 loses its bottom 30 mm; the rest are unchanged.

Trim a scan’s dark border. On a scanned page, drag the box edges inward until the shaded area covers the black border, check the other pages with › to make sure the border is in the same place, then crop all pages.

Limits and tips

• A crop that leaves less than about 3.5 mm in width or height is refused.
• Printing a cropped page may scale it up to fill the paper, depending on your print settings.
• Password-protected files must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.