Guide
Crop equal margins off every PDF page
Trim scanner black borders or leftover printer margins by setting one margin size in points.
How to crop a PDF
Desktop scanners often leave a black strip around a sheet. This tool sets a crop box inset from every edge by the same amount. It is a uniform trim, not a freehand rectangle per page.
The margin is limited to a quarter of the page size so a huge number cannot wipe the content. Cropping hides the outer band in most viewers; some print drivers still see the original media box. If a printer shows the old border, print from a viewer that honors the crop box.
Processing is local. Cropping does not delete the underlying drawing outside the box in every PDF encoder, so it is not a redaction tool. For secrets at the edge of a page, redact or remove the page.
- Open Crop PDF and add the file.
- Set the margin in points. 72 points is one inch. A small value such as 18 trims a quarter inch.
- Run Crop PDF. Each page’s crop box shrinks by that amount on all four sides, capped so the page cannot collapse.
- Download and open the file. If you cropped too far, go back to the original and use a smaller margin.
Crop behavior
If only one page is wrong, crop the whole file then replace that page by splitting and merging, or rotate that page instead if the issue is orientation.
- Same inset on all four sides of every page.
- Margin is in PDF points (72 pt = 1 inch).
- Stops you from cropping more than a quarter of the page.
- Does not offer a click-and-drag crop rectangle.
- Does not send the file to a server.
Privacy when you crop a PDF
The file is read in the browser. Crop is not the same as redaction: data outside the crop can still exist in the file.
Do not treat crop as a way to hide account numbers. Use Redact PDF for that. How we handle files is described in the Privacy Policy.
Frequently asked questions
Some viewers ignore crop boxes and show the media box. Try another reader, or print using “fit to printable area” only if you accept scaling.
Not in one pass. Split out the odd page, crop it separately, then merge.
No. It adjusts the crop box. Image data can remain in the file. That is why it is faster and lossless for text PDFs.