FormatDrop
How-To Guide

How to Crop PDF Pages

Cropping a PDF removes margins or unwanted areas from each page. Useful for: trimming whitespace from scanned documents, removing headers/footers from book scans, focusing attention on a specific area, or matching paper sizes. Cropping is metadata-only — content isn't deleted, just hidden.

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Step-by-step instructions

  1. 1

    Upload your PDF file

    Select your .pdf file. The tool shows page previews with adjustable crop boxes.

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  2. 2

    Define crop area

    Drag the crop box to the desired area. Most tools let you crop all pages identically (auto-detect content boundaries) or set different crop boxes per page.

  3. 3

    Download the cropped PDF

    The output PDF has the cropped page sizes. The full content remains in the file (technically), but only the cropped area displays.

Why convert PDF to PDF?

Scanned documents have wasted margins; cropping focuses attention on content. It's a metadata operation that takes seconds with proper tools.

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Frequently asked questions

Command-line tool to crop PDF?
cpdf: `cpdf -crop "100 100 400 600" input.pdf -o output.pdf` (left bottom width height in PDF points, 1 point = 1/72 inch). Ghostscript can also crop via PDF box manipulation but is more complex.
Is cropping reversible?
Yes if the original is preserved. The crop is stored as a CropBox in PDF metadata — the original MediaBox (full page content) remains in the file. Tools can reset the CropBox to remove the crop. However, some 'flatten and crop' tools permanently delete content outside the crop area.
How do I crop on a Mac?
Preview: open the PDF, Tools → Show Inspector (or Cmd+I), select Page Inspector → set Trim Box. Or use the marquee tool: select an area, then Tools → Crop. File → Save changes the PDF.
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