Crop PDF
Visually crop PDF pages to remove unwanted margins, white space, or peripheral content. Drag a rectangle on the page preview to define the visible area. Apply crops to all pages uniformly, to specific page ranges, or to individual pages. Choose between CropBox, BleedBox, or TrimBox for professional publishing workflows.
What does this tool do?
The Crop tool adjusts the visible region of PDF pages by modifying page boundary boxes. Unlike image cropping that removes pixel data, PDF cropping changes which portion of the page is displayed without deleting the underlying content. This allows you to hide margins, remove headers/footers from display, or focus attention on specific content areas. The tool provides visual cropping with drag handles, precise numeric input, and professional page box options for various publishing requirements.
How it works
Using MuPDF's page manipulation capabilities, the tool modifies the PDF page box parameters that define the visible region. You visually draw a crop rectangle on a page preview. The tool calculates the coordinates and applies them to the selected page box type (CropBox, BleedBox, or TrimBox). For CropBox, it sets the visible page boundary. The underlying page content remains intact — only the viewport changes. For PDF viewers that support it, users can still access cropped content in some advanced viewers, but standard viewers show only the cropped region.
Features
- Drag-to-crop directly on the page preview
- Resize handles on all 4 corners and 4 edges
- Numeric margin mode for precision cropping
- Choose CropBox / BleedBox / TrimBox
- Apply to all pages or custom page range
- Visual preview before applying
- Maintain aspect ratio option
How to use
- 1
Upload your PDF
Drag the document with pages you want to crop onto the drop zone. The tool loads the PDF and displays the first page in the cropping interface.
- 2
Draw the crop rectangle
On the page preview, drag from one corner to the opposite to create the crop area. Use the resize handles on edges and corners for fine-tuning. The area outside the rectangle will be cropped.
- 3
Set precision values (optional)
For exact measurements, switch to numeric mode and enter margins in points, inches, or millimeters for each edge (top, bottom, left, right).
- 4
Choose page box type
Select CropBox for standard viewing (most common), BleedBox for print bleed areas, or TrimBox for final trimmed dimensions. Most users want CropBox.
- 5
Set scope and apply
Apply to all pages for uniform cropping, or specify a page range. Click Apply Crop and download the modified PDF.
Common use cases
Remove scanner margins
Clean up scanned documents with dark or uneven edges by cropping to the actual document content area.
Prepare slides for presentation
Crop presentation slides to remove speaker notes, date stamps, or footer information from the visible area.
Focus on document regions
Crop reports and articles to show only the content column, removing sidebars, advertisements, or navigation elements.
Print preparation
Use BleedBox or TrimBox settings to define professional print boundaries for commercial printing workflows.
Tips & best practices
- CropBox only hides content — the underlying data remains in the file. For permanent content removal with security, use Redact instead
- Use uniform margins for professional appearance across multi-page documents
- Preview the crop on multiple pages when applying to ranges — content position may vary
- BleedBox extends beyond the trim edge for print bleed; TrimBox is the final cut line