Drag to draw your crop area, type exact margins, or auto-detect whitespace borders. Apply to one page or the entire document - free, private, no uploads.
Drop PDF File Here
Draw a crop area on the page, set margins, then apply to one page or the whole document.
Rendering...
Crop margins (% of page size)
Top
%
Right
%
Bottom
%
Left
%
Drag the crop box on the preview or type margin values above. Margins are % of page width/height.
output.pdf
Save as:
.pdf
How to crop a PDF online
No account, no software, no server uploads. Your PDF is processed entirely inside your browser.
Step 01
Open your PDF
Drop a PDF file onto the tool, click Select PDF File, or paste from your clipboard. The first page renders instantly.
Step 02
Draw or type your crop
Drag the crop box handles to set the area you want to keep. Or type exact margin percentages in the fields below the preview.
Step 03
Apply to one page or all
Toggle between "This page" and "All pages" to crop individually or apply a uniform crop to every page in the document.
Step 04
Download
Rename the output file if you like, then download the cropped PDF directly to your device.
What makes this PDF cropper different
Most online cropping tools convert your PDF to images first, then back to PDF. This one does not.
100% private, zero uploads
Every operation runs locally in your browser. Confidential contracts, medical records, and financial statements never leave your device.
Vector quality preserved
Cropping adjusts the PDF page boundary, not the content. Text stays selectable, fonts stay sharp, and images are not recompressed.
Drag-and-draw crop box
Draw your crop area directly on the page preview. Resize from any corner or edge, or move the whole box. Rule-of-thirds guides help with alignment.
Auto-detect whitespace margins
Click Auto-detect and the tool scans the page pixel by pixel to find where content starts, removing blank borders automatically.
Per-page or uniform crop
Navigate through each page and set different crop areas per page, or apply one crop to the whole document in a single click.
Rotation-aware
Correctly handles PDFs with rotated pages. The crop coordinates are mapped to the unrotated page coordinate space, so the output is always accurate.
PDF cropping vs image-based cropping
Understanding the difference helps you choose the right tool for what you need.
| What you care about | PDF boundary crop (this tool) | Rasterise then crop |
|---|---|---|
| Text quality | Vector sharp at any zoom | Fixed pixel resolution |
| Text selection and copy | Fully preserved | Lost - becomes an image |
| File size after cropping | Unchanged or smaller | Often larger |
| Hidden content outside crop | Still in file, just hidden | Permanently deleted |
| Works on rotated pages | Yes, coordinate-aware | Yes |
| Processing speed | Instant | Slow on long documents |
Important: PDF boundary cropping hides content outside the crop area but does not delete it from the file. If you need to permanently remove sensitive content from a PDF (not just hide it), use a dedicated PDF redaction tool. Any PDF viewer that ignores the CropBox setting may still show the full uncropped page.
When do you need to crop a PDF?
Cropping comes up in a surprisingly wide range of everyday document workflows.
Scanned documents
Removing scanner borders and shadows
Phone and flatbed scanners almost always capture dark border shadows or ragged edges around the scanned content. Cropping removes these automatically using the Auto-detect feature.
Academic and research
Trimming journal margins for readability
Academic PDFs often have wide outer margins and large header/footer zones. Cropping them for screen reading makes the text fill more of the display area on tablets and e-readers.
Presentations
Extracting slides without slide numbers
When exporting a presentation to PDF, slide numbers and date footers often appear. Crop the bottom margin to hide them before sharing the deck externally.
Architecture and engineering
Isolating drawing areas from title blocks
Technical drawings often have large title block borders that take up 20-30% of the page. Crop them away to focus on the drawing content itself for on-screen review.
Books and ebooks
Optimising PDF books for e-readers
PDF books exported from InDesign or Word have large page margins designed for print. Cropping them down before loading onto a Kindle or tablet dramatically improves text size and readability.
Business
Tidying up exported reports
Reports exported from Excel, Power BI, or Tableau often include large blank page margins. Cropping them gives a cleaner look when the PDF is shared in presentations or emails.
Tip for e-reader users: Set the crop mode to "All pages" and use Auto-detect on a typical page from the middle of the book, then fine-tune the margins manually. Apply once and every page will be cropped consistently - no need to set each page individually.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about cropping PDF files online.
Yes, completely free. No account, no watermarks, no file size limits, no daily quota. The tool runs entirely in your browser using open-source libraries.
No. This tool adjusts the page boundary box in the PDF structure without altering any of the actual content. Text remains selectable and sharp at any zoom level, vector graphics remain vectors, and embedded images are not recompressed. The only change is where the page edge is drawn.
No - and this is important to understand. PDF cropping hides the area outside the crop boundary but does not permanently delete it from the file. Most PDF viewers will show only the cropped area, but a viewer that ignores the CropBox setting (or any PDF editor) can still access the full original content. If you need to permanently remove content for security or confidentiality, you need PDF redaction, not cropping.
Yes. In "This page" mode, use the Prev and Next buttons to navigate between pages. Each page remembers its own crop settings independently. When you click Crop, only the pages you have configured are cropped. Alternatively, switch to "All pages" mode to apply one uniform crop to every page at once.
Load your scanned PDF, switch to "All pages" mode, then click the Auto-detect margins button. The tool will scan the page pixel by pixel to find where the actual document content starts and automatically set the crop box to exclude the blank border area and shadow. Check the result visually and adjust if needed before applying.
Yes. The tool reads the existing CropBox as the visible baseline and lets you set a new crop within that visible area. You can crop further inward from a previously cropped PDF without any issues.
Yes. The tool handles page rotation (0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees) correctly by mapping the visual crop box back to the unrotated PDF coordinate space before writing the new page boundaries. Landscape pages and mixed-orientation documents are all supported.
No. Password-protected PDFs are encrypted and cannot be opened or modified without the password. Remove the password protection first using a PDF editor or unlocker, then crop the file here.
Use the percentage margin inputs below the preview. Calculate how much of the page width and height you want to trim from each side. For example, if your page is too wide by 10% on each side, set Left and Right margins to 10. The dimension label on the crop box shows the resulting size in PDF points (72 points = 1 inch) to help you verify the output dimensions.