peartools

Crop PDF

Trim the empty margins off a PDF so the content fills more of the page. Set one amount for all four edges or control each one on its own, in millimeters or inches. The preview shades exactly what is being cut away. Everything happens in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.

Drag and drop your PDF here, or

Up to 100 MB. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

What cropping a PDF does

Every PDF page carries two rectangles: the media box, which is the full sheet, and the crop box, which is the part a reader shows and a printer prints. Cropping moves the crop box inwards. The content outside it is still in the file, it is simply no longer displayed.

That has a useful consequence. Because nothing is deleted or redrawn, cropping never costs you any quality, and it is instant even on a long document. It also means a crop can be undone by a tool that resets the crop box, so it is a safe change rather than a destructive one.

It also means cropping does not make a PDF smaller in file size. The hidden content is still there. If a smaller file is what you are after, removing whole pages will do more than trimming their edges.

Why use our crop PDF tool

  • ·Free. No signup, no paywall, no watermarks.
  • ·Runs in your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded or saved.
  • ·See what you are cutting. The preview shades the trimmed area so there is no guesswork.
  • ·Crop one page or all of them. Pick a single page, a range, or just the odd or even pages.
  • ·No quality loss. Cropping changes the visible area, it never re-compresses the page.

How to use it

  1. 1

    Add your PDF

    Drag the file onto the box or click to pick it. It stays in your browser and is never uploaded.

  2. 2

    Choose which pages to crop

    Crop every page, only the page you are looking at, a list of page numbers, or just the odd or even pages. Work in millimeters or inches.

  3. 3

    Trim the edges

    Drag any edge of the page inwards, or use the sliders. The trim white space button finds the content for you and crops to it automatically.

  4. 4

    Check the preview and download

    The shaded area is what goes. Step through the pages to check the crop suits all of them, then save.

Why cropping does not shrink the file size

This surprises people. You crop a 5 MB scan down to half its visible area, save it, and the file is still 5 MB. Nothing has gone wrong.

Cropping only changes which part of the page is shown. The text and images outside the crop box are still stored in the file exactly as before, because a crop is meant to be reversible. A reader simply stops drawing them.

If your goal is a smaller file, the things that actually help are removing pages you do not need, or starting from a lower resolution scan. If your goal is a tidier page, cropping is exactly the right tool, just do not expect the file size to follow.

One thing to watch when cropping a document you will print: check every page, not just the first. Scans often shift by a few millimeters from page to page, so a crop that looks perfect on page one can clip the text on page nine. Step through the preview before saving.

When to crop a PDF

Anyone with more white space around the content than they want. These are the situations that come up most:

  • ·People reading on a tablet or e-reader. Wide margins waste screen space on a small display. Cropping them off makes the text noticeably bigger without changing the file.
  • ·Anyone working with scanned pages. A scanner often captures the whole platen, leaving a grey or black border around the page. Cropping removes it.
  • ·People reusing a page in another document. Trimming to just the chart or table you need makes it drop neatly into a report or slide.
  • ·Anyone printing a document that was made for a bigger sheet. Cropping the excess margin lets the content sit properly on the paper you actually have.

If you need the opposite, adding margins puts white space back around the pages. Resizing the pages changes the paper size itself, and rotating fixes any that are sideways.

Frequently asked questions

How do I crop a PDF?
Add your PDF, set how much to trim from each edge, check the shaded preview, then click download. The crop is applied in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Does cropping a PDF reduce the file size?
No. Cropping changes which part of the page is shown, but the content outside the crop is still stored in the file. To make a PDF smaller, remove pages you do not need instead.
Is the cropped content gone for good?
No, it is hidden rather than deleted. A tool that resets the crop box can bring it back. If you need content genuinely removed from a file, deleting the whole page is the reliable way.
Can I crop just one page of a PDF?
Yes. Set which pages to crop to this page only and just the page you are looking at is changed, leaving the rest at their current size. You can also type specific page numbers and ranges, or crop only the odd or even pages.
How do I crop only the odd or even pages?
Choose odd pages or even pages under which pages to crop. This is useful for a scanned book, where the left and right hand pages often need a different amount trimmed from the inside edge.
Can the tool find the margins for me?
Yes. The trim white space button looks at the page you are previewing, works out where the content actually starts and stops, and sets the crop to fit it with a small margin left around the edge. You can adjust the result afterwards.
Does cropping lower the quality?
No. Nothing is redrawn or re-compressed. The text stays sharp and selectable and images keep their original resolution.
Why does my crop clip the text on some pages but not others?
Scanned pages often shift slightly as they feed through, so the content is not in the same spot on every page. Step through the preview and set the crop to suit the worst page rather than the first one.
Are my PDF files private?
Yes. The whole process runs in your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded to a server or saved anywhere, and once the page has loaded you can even use it offline.