Trim margins or any area off your PDF pages. Drag a crop box on the preview, apply to one or all pages, and download. 100% in your browser.
Or click to select a file from your device
When most people think about cropping, they think about photos — trimming a bad edge or focusing on a subject. PDFs need cropping for very different reasons, but they need it just as often. Maybe your document came from a scanner that captured big white margins around every page. Maybe you want to read a PDF on a phone or tablet and the original page size is wasteful for a small screen. Maybe you're preparing pages for a presentation and need to strip out the headers, footers, or watermarks of the original. Maybe you have a multi-page report where every page has a date or filename in the corner that you'd rather not include in the version you're sharing.
This tool lets you draw a crop box on any page, preview the result, and apply that crop to a single page or to every page in the document. The original PDF stays untouched on your device; you download a new, cropped version. No upload, no signup, no watermark.
Drag the file into the upload area or click to browse. The PDF is loaded and rendered in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.
Once the first page appears, click and drag on the page to define the area you want to keep. The dashed blue box shows your selection. Re-drag any time to adjust — only the most recent box matters.
"Apply to This Page Only" crops just the page you're currently viewing. "Apply to All & Download" crops every page in the document with the same box. The all-pages option is what most users actually want — most PDFs have consistent margins across all pages.
Once you confirm, the cropped PDF is generated and downloaded. The original PDF on your device is untouched; you just have a new cropped copy to use.
Here's something subtle that's worth understanding: PDF cropping doesn't physically delete the content outside the crop box. Instead, it adjusts a property called the CropBox — essentially a setting that tells every PDF viewer "show only this rectangle of each page, ignore the rest." The hidden content is still in the file, but no viewer displays it.
This matters in two ways. First, it means PDF cropping is technically reversible — a tool that resets the CropBox can show the full original content again. So if you cropped sensitive information out of a document, just changing the CropBox isn't enough to truly remove that content; the data is still there for anyone with PDF editing tools. For real redaction, use a proper redaction tool that overwrites the content.
Second, cropping doesn't dramatically shrink file size. The hidden content still takes up space in the file. If your goal is a smaller file, combine cropping with our PDF compressor for both visual cleanup and file-size reduction.
Your PDF stays on your device. Most free PDF croppers upload your file to their servers, modify it there, and email or download the result back. For sensitive documents — contracts, financial statements, internal company docs, medical records — that's the kind of risk you shouldn't take for a 30-second crop. We do it entirely in your browser using pdf.js (for rendering) and pdf-lib (for modifying). The file never leaves your device.
Visual crop box on the actual page. Many basic croppers ask you to type margin values in millimeters or points. That's annoying when you don't know exactly how much you want to trim. We let you drag a box on the page preview, see exactly what you'd be keeping, and adjust until it looks right.
Per-page or all-pages. Most cropping happens to all pages at once (consistent margins across a document), but sometimes you need to crop pages individually (a mixed document, a scrapbook PDF). We support both — apply to the current page only or to all pages with one click.
Auto-detect margins. For documents with clearly white margins, the auto-detect button tries to find the tightest crop that doesn't cut into content. Especially useful for scanned documents where margins are inconsistent.
Free, no signup, unlimited. No daily quota, no premium tier, no watermark on output.
Reading scanned documents on tablets and phones. A book scanned at letter size has huge wasted margins when read on a 6-inch phone screen. Cropping the margins out gives you bigger text and a much better reading experience without any actual content loss.
Stripping headers and footers. Many documents have repetitive headers (company logo on every page) or footers (filename, timestamp, page numbers) that you'd rather not include in a shared copy. Crop them out in one pass.
Cleaning up scanned books or articles. Old scanners often capture parts of the next page, the platen edge, or fingers in the corner. Crop these out for a tidy archival version.
Preparing PDFs for inclusion in another document. If you're pasting a PDF page into a Word doc or slide deck, often only the central content matters, and the margins waste layout space. Cropping first makes the embedded version cleaner.
Trimming bleed lines or trim marks from print files. Print-ready PDFs often have crop marks and bleed areas around the actual page. For non-print uses, those should be cropped away.
Hiding watermarks or stamps. If a watermark sits in a consistent spot near the edge of every page, cropping that edge out removes it. (Note: this is cosmetic — the watermark data may still be in the file. For real watermark removal, use a dedicated tool.)
Standardizing page sizes across a mixed document. If you merged PDFs with different page sizes, cropping to a consistent box makes the result feel like a single coherent document.
Crop with a small margin of safety. Cropping right up to the edge of content sometimes clips letters or descenders. Leave a few millimeters of breathing room around your content for a more professional result.
Use the auto-detect option for white-margin scans. If your PDF was scanned with consistent white margins, the auto-detect button often finds the right crop instantly. Adjust if it's too tight or loose.
Check the first AND last page before applying to all. Some documents have different content at the start (title page, foreword) and end (appendix, index). What works as a crop for body pages may cut content on the front or back.
Save the original before cropping. Cropping is technically reversible, but it's still easier to keep the uncropped original on your device. That way if you need to recrop differently, you start from the source.
For complex documents, use per-page crops. Mixed documents — say, a merged file containing a portrait letter on page 1 and landscape charts on pages 2–10 — need different crops per orientation. Use "Apply to This Page Only" and navigate through each page.
Yes. No signup, no watermark, no daily quota. Crop as many PDFs as you want.
No. The cropper runs entirely in your browser. Your PDF never leaves your device.
PDF cropping adjusts the CropBox property, which tells viewers "show only this area." The hidden content is technically still in the file. For confidential redaction, use a dedicated redaction tool, not just cropping.
Yes. Use "Apply to This Page Only" to crop the current page, navigate to the next page, draw a new crop box, and apply again. Repeat for any pages that need different crops.
Not dramatically — the hidden content still takes up space in the file. For real file-size reduction, combine cropping with our PDF compressor.
Within this tool, draw a fresh crop box at any time before saving — only the most recent box matters. After saving, the cropped PDF is a new file; the original on your device is untouched, so you can always start over from the original.
If you know the password, decrypt the PDF first then crop the unlocked version. The cropper can't bypass passwords.
It scans the page edges for empty (white or near-white) margins and suggests a crop box that trims them away. Works best on documents with clearly empty margins; mixed or colored backgrounds may not auto-detect cleanly.