Crop PDF
Visually crop PDF pages by drawing a crop box or setting precise margins. Preview the crop area live, then apply to all pages or just the current one.
Crop Complete
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Ctrl + Enter | Apply crop |
| Ctrl + D | Download result |
| R | Reset margins |
| Escape | Reset and start over |
| ← → | Previous / Next page |
Why Crop PDF Pages?
PDF documents often contain unwanted white space, headers, footers, or margins that distract from the actual content. Cropping removes these areas visually, giving you a cleaner document for presentations, printing, or embedding in other files. Unlike trimming in image editors, PDF cropping preserves vector text and graphics at full quality because it adjusts page boundaries rather than rasterizing content.
This free online PDF cropper processes everything locally in your browser. No file uploads, no server processing, no privacy concerns. The tool uses pdf-lib to modify CropBox and MediaBox coordinates directly, which means your cropped output retains searchable text, hyperlinks, and form fields intact.
How to Crop a PDF
- Upload your PDF by dragging it onto the drop zone or clicking to browse. Files up to 100 MB are supported.
- Set crop margins by typing point values into the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right fields, or draw a crop box directly on the preview canvas with your mouse.
- Choose scope from the Apply To dropdown. Select All Pages for uniform cropping or Current Page Only for per-page adjustments.
- Preview the crop area shown as a dashed cyan rectangle. The darkened regions will be removed. Dimensions display in real time.
- Click Apply Crop to process the PDF. A scrollable preview of the cropped pages appears below.
- Download the result with your custom filename, or click Crop Another to start over.
Features
- Visual drag-to-crop box with live preview overlay
- Precise point-based margin inputs for exact control
- Apply crop to all pages or individual pages
- Touch and mouse drag support for mobile devices
- Real-time crop dimension display in points
- Scrollable multi-page result preview (up to 6 pages)
- Editable output filename before download
- Progress bar with page-by-page status updates
- Keyboard shortcuts for power users
- 100% client-side processing with no file uploads
Use Cases
Removing scan borders. Scanned documents often have black edges or uneven margins from the scanner bed. Crop all pages uniformly to produce clean, professional-looking PDFs without rescanning.
Trimming presentation slides. Export slides from PowerPoint or Google Slides sometimes include extra whitespace. Crop the margins to maximize content area when embedding slides in reports or web pages.
Extracting content regions. Academic papers, invoices, and forms often have headers and footers you do not need. Crop to isolate the body content for quoting, archiving, or combining with other documents using a PDF merger.
Tips and Tricks
- Use the page selector to check multiple pages before applying. Headers and footers may vary between pages, so verify your margins work across the document.
- Draw a rough crop box first, then fine-tune the numeric inputs for pixel-perfect results. The overlay updates instantly as you type.
- For documents with consistent margins, apply to all pages in one pass. For mixed layouts, crop each page individually using Current Page Only mode.
- After cropping, run the file through a PDF compressor to remove hidden content outside the crop area and reduce file size.
- Remember that cropping sets boundaries but does not delete data. If you need to permanently remove content for security, use the Redact PDF tool instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does cropping a PDF reduce the file size?
Cropping sets the visible area but does not remove hidden content from the file. The file size stays roughly the same. To reduce size after cropping, run the file through a PDF compressor.
Can I crop different margins on each page?
Yes. Select a specific page from the page dropdown, set your margins, and choose Apply to Current Page Only. Repeat for each page that needs different crop values.
Will cropping remove content permanently?
The crop sets MediaBox and CropBox boundaries. Content outside the crop area becomes hidden but is not deleted from the PDF structure. Some viewers may still access hidden content.
What is the maximum file size supported?
The tool supports PDF files up to 100 MB. All processing happens in your browser, so speed depends on your device hardware. No data is uploaded to any server.
Can I undo a crop after downloading?
The original file is never modified. If you need to adjust the crop, reload the original file and apply new margins. Keep your original file as a backup.
Does this work on scanned PDFs?
Yes. The tool crops based on page geometry, not content type. Scanned pages, vector graphics, and text-based PDFs all crop the same way using MediaBox coordinates.
Crop PDF is part of the Toolbox collection of free online utilities. All tools run entirely in your browser with no server uploads, keeping your documents private and secure. Try the PDF Page Extractor to pull specific pages, or Reorder PDF Pages to rearrange your document.