When you turn scanned documents or other materials into a PDF, the edges often end up with wide margins or black borders. Those margins make the content look small on screen and are especially distracting when you read on a tablet. With this Crop PDF tool you can trim the edges by percentage so the body of the page fills the view.
You can set a separate crop amount for the top, bottom, left, and right, so even lopsided margins can be tidied up exactly the way you want. Each side adjusts with a slider up to 45%, and the values you choose are applied identically to every page.
Because it shrinks the visible area (the CropBox) rather than redrawing the page, there's no loss of quality and the body text stays intact. Everything runs entirely in your browser, so your files are never sent anywhere.
How to Use
- 1
Select a PDF
Add the PDF whose margins you want to tidy up. Files up to 200MB are supported.
- 2
Adjust the percentages
Use the top, bottom, left, and right sliders to set how much to crop (%). Each side goes up to 45%, though 5-10% is usually enough.
- 3
Run & download
Click 'Crop PDF' and download the trimmed file. At least one side must be set to 1% or more.
When It's Useful
Remove black borders from scans
Crop the side where a black band appeared during scanning to clean it up neatly.
Optimize for tablets and e-readers
Reduce wide margins so the body fills the screen even on small displays.
Tidy up captured slides
Trim the empty space around a slide so the material fills the screen.
Balance margins before printing
Adjust lopsided margins side by side to create a balanced layout when printed.
Tips
- Start by cropping just 5% at a time, then raise the value and try again if it's not enough.
- If a black border appeared on one side during scanning, raising the percentage on just that side removes it cleanly.
- Each side can be cropped up to 45%, but start with small values so the body text isn't cut off.
- At least one side must be set to 1% or more to run; if everything is 0, a notice appears.
- The content in the cropped margin area becomes invisible, but the data may still remain inside the file, so be careful if your goal is to delete sensitive information.
- If you also want to reduce the file size after trimming margins, follow up with the 'Compress PDF' tool.
FAQ
Can I crop each page differently?
For now the same percentages apply to every page. To crop pages differently, split the file with 'Split PDF' first and process each part separately.
How much can I crop from each side?
The slider lets you set 0% to 45% per side. Use only as much as you need so the body text isn't cut off.
Is the cropped part completely deleted?
It shrinks the visible area (the CropBox), so it won't appear on screen or in print. However, the original data may still remain inside the file.
Does the quality drop?
No. Only the visible area is adjusted, so there's no loss of quality.
Can I still select and copy text?
Yes. Because the page isn't redrawn, text within the visible area can still be selected and copied.
Can I undo a wrong crop?
The original is never changed, so if you don't like the result, just adjust the percentages and run it again.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Everything runs 100% in your browser, and files are never sent anywhere.