Crop PDF pages and trim white margins
Scanned pages with wide grey borders, slides with a thick white frame, a research paper you want to read on a phone without the huge margins, or one chart you need from a full page — the Crop PDF tool trims PDF pages to exactly the area you want.
Drag a crop box on the page preview with a mouse or your finger, or type the margins to cut in millimetres, inches or points. One click detects the white margins around the content for you, and you can apply the crop to the current page, every page, or only odd or even pages — handy for scanned books where left and right pages have different margins.
Your PDF is cropped in the browser and never uploaded. Text stays real, searchable text, and images keep their full resolution.
How to crop a PDF
- Drop your PDF onto the upload area or click to choose it. The first page appears with a crop box around it.
- Drag the handles to resize the box, drag inside it to move it, or drag on the page outside it to draw a new box. Or type the top, bottom, left and right margins.
- Press “Detect white margins” to fit the box to the content automatically, or tick “Trim each page to its own content” to do this on every page.
- Choose which pages to crop — this page, all, odd or even — and tick “Hard crop” if the paper size itself should shrink.
- Press “Crop PDF” and download the result. Use “Keep cropping this result” to give other pages a different crop.
Crop PDF features
Touch-friendly crop box
Large handles on every corner and edge work with a finger, and the page does not scroll while you drag.
Exact margins
Type margins in mm, inches or points; the box and the inputs stay in sync, and the new page size is shown as you go.
Automatic white-margin detection
The page is rendered and scanned for its content area, with adjustable breathing space around it.
Odd and even pages
Crop left-hand and right-hand pages of a scanned book separately, then combine both passes.
Soft or hard crop
Set only the visible area (CropBox) or also shrink the paper (MediaBox) for printing and page-size checks.
Rotated pages handled
Margins refer to the page as you see it, even when the PDF stores it sideways.
CropBox, MediaBox and what cropping really does
Every PDF page has a MediaBox — the full sheet — and may have a CropBox, the region that viewers display and print. A normal (soft) crop changes only the CropBox. It is instant, lossless and reversible: the content outside the box is hidden, not deleted, and many PDF editors can restore it.
A hard crop also sets the MediaBox to the same rectangle, so the page really is smaller: print dialogs, page-size readers and imposition software see the new dimensions. Even then, the drawing instructions for the hidden area usually remain inside the file.
That matters for privacy. If you crop away an account number, a signature or a name, the information may still be extracted by text-selection, search or editing software. To remove it permanently, convert the cropped pages to images with PDF to JPG and back with JPG to PDF — only the visible area survives — or use proper redaction software.
Typical crops
| Goal | How |
|---|---|
| Remove scanner borders | “Trim each page to its own content” with 3–5 mm of space |
| Read papers on a phone | Detect white margins on page 1, apply to all pages |
| Scanned book, uneven gutters | Crop odd pages, then “Keep cropping this result” for even pages |
| Extract one figure | Draw a box around it, “This page”, hard crop |
| Trim a fixed amount, e.g. 10 mm | Type 10 in all four margins, all pages |
Good to know
- Automatic detection treats anything lighter than about 95% white as background, so faint scanner shadows may stop it trimming fully — drag the box tighter if needed.
- Cropping does not change the scale. To fit cropped pages back onto A4 or Letter paper, run them through Resize PDF.
- Sideways pages are easier to judge upright: fix them first with Rotate PDF.
- Cropping on its own does not make the file smaller — to cut megabytes, use Compress PDF.
Crop PDF FAQ
How do I crop a PDF for free?
Add the PDF, drag the crop box on the preview (or type margins), choose which pages to crop and press “Crop PDF”. Download the cropped file — no sign-up or watermark.
How do I remove white margins from a PDF?
Press “Detect white margins” to fit the box to the content of the current page, or tick “Trim each page to its own content” so every page is trimmed separately.
Can I crop just one page of a PDF?
Yes. Go to the page with the arrows, set the crop box and choose “This page” under “Apply to”.
Does cropping delete the content outside the box?
No. Cropping hides it; the content usually remains in the file and can be recovered. For sensitive information, convert the cropped pages to images or use redaction software instead.
What is the difference between a soft and a hard crop?
A soft crop changes only the visible area (CropBox). A hard crop also changes the paper size (MediaBox), which is what printers and page-size tools read.
Can I crop a PDF on my phone?
Yes. Drag the large handles with your finger; the page stays still while you adjust the box.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Cropping happens in your browser, so the file stays on your device.