Crop a PDF — trim margins visually or by measurement
Trim the margins off a PDF — drag a crop directly on the page or type exact margins, and apply it to one page, a selection, or the whole document.
Runs in your browser — your input is not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Your files are processed locally in your browser and are not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Cropping is not redaction. This sets each page's CropBox — the region a viewer displays. The MediaBox and the page content are left exactly as they were, so anything outside the visible area is still inside the file and can be brought back by resetting the box. Never use cropping to hide confidential information; delete the content or flatten the page instead.
Because nothing is re-rendered, text stays selectable, quality is untouched, and the file barely changes size — but it will not get smaller either, since the hidden content is still there. Pages carrying a rotation flag are handled by rotating the margins to match what you see on screen, and documents with differently sized pages apply the same margins to each page relative to its own dimensions.
How to use
- Open a PDF. The first page is rendered so you can see what you are trimming.
- Set the crop. Drag a rectangle on the page, or type margins in millimetres, points, centimetres or inches.
- Choose the pages. All pages, just the one you are looking at, or a range like 1-3,5.
- Download. A cropped copy is saved; the original file is untouched.
Questions
Does cropping delete the content outside the crop?
No, and this is the most important thing to understand about PDF cropping. It sets the CropBox — the region a reader displays — while the page content and the underlying MediaBox stay exactly as they were. Anything outside the visible area is still in the file and comes back if the box is reset. Cropping is presentation, not deletion.
So can I use it to hide confidential information?
No. Because the content remains in the file, anyone can recover it by resetting the crop box or extracting the page content. Genuine redaction means removing the content itself. If you need something gone, delete it in an editor, or rasterise the page — the compress tool here does that as a side effect, at the cost of the text layer.
Will the file get smaller?
Barely, and sometimes not at all. The hidden content is still stored, so cropping saves only a handful of bytes. If your goal is a smaller file, compression is the tool for that.
What about rotated pages?
Handled. A page carrying a rotation flag displays turned, so the edge you call "top" is not the top in the file’s own coordinates. The margins you set are rotated to match what you see on screen, so a crop behaves the way it looks.
What if pages are different sizes?
Margins are applied relative to each page’s own dimensions, so a 20 mm margin takes 20 mm off every page regardless of size. The tool tells you when a document has mixed page sizes so the result is not a surprise.
Is quality affected?
Not at all. Nothing is re-rendered or re-compressed — only a box definition changes. Text stays selectable, images stay sharp, and links keep working.