How do I crop the margins on a PDF?
To crop a PDF, drop it into FixDoks's Crop PDF tool, then drag handles to draw a crop box, type exact margins in millimetres, or click Auto-detect margins. Choose whether it applies to all pages, the current page, or a range, then click Crop PDF. This only hides content and runs entirely in your browser.
Crop PDF at a glance
| Input | One PDF file |
|---|---|
| Output | Cropped PDF |
| Processing | In your browser; your files are not uploaded |
| Price | Free, no watermark |
| Download | Free Google sign-in |
| Works on | Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone |
How to use Crop PDF
- Drop your PDF onto the box, then drag the handles on the preview to draw the crop box, or type margins in millimetres in the side panel.
- Click Auto-detect margins to let FixDoks find the white space on the page and set the box for you.
- Choose whether the crop applies to All pages, only the Current page, or a typed page range.
- Click Crop PDF and download the result.
What does cropping a PDF actually do?
Cropping does not cut content out of a PDF file. It changes the page's CropBox, which tells a PDF viewer which part of the page to display, while leaving the original MediaBox and every bit of content underneath it untouched. That is why it is fast and completely lossless: text stays sharp and selectable, and any content outside the new crop box is simply hidden, not deleted, from the underlying file. If you need the removed area gone for good, flatten the page to an image afterwards with Flatten PDF.
Manual drag vs typed margins vs auto-detect
Dragging the handles on the page preview is the quickest way to crop one odd page, like a scanned receipt with a crooked border. Typing margins in millimetres is better when you want an identical, precise crop on every page of a long report, for example trimming 10mm off each edge before printing. Auto-detect margins measures the white space around the printed content on the page and sets a tight box automatically, which is handy for PDFs exported from Word or PowerPoint that leave large unused borders.
Choosing the scope
| Scope | Use when |
|---|---|
| All pages | Every page has the same layout, such as a scanned book or a report exported at one page size. |
| Current page | Only one page is different, for example a cover page with a different margin. |
| Page range | A section of the document needs a different crop, such as appendix pages scanned at a different size. |
Common uses
- Removing wide printer margins before uploading a scanned form.
- Cutting a single figure or table out of a page to paste elsewhere (as an image, use PDF to JPG after cropping).
- Trimming a boarding pass or ticket PDF down to just the barcode area.
- Standardising mismatched page sizes in a scanned document before printing.
Tips
Zoom in before dragging the handles on small text or fine print, since a pixel of error at low zoom becomes a visible cut at full size. If a page has rotation applied, the crop box follows the rotated view, so what you see in the preview is what prints. If you crop too much by mistake, just re-open the original file and start again; the tool never overwrites your source file. It is also worth cropping one sample page first on a long document before applying the same margins to every page, so you can confirm nothing important sits right at the edge of the box.
When cropping is not the right tool
If you actually want a smaller page size rather than hidden margins, use Resize PDF pages instead, which scales the whole page to a new size like A4 or Letter. If you want to remove specific pages rather than margins, use Remove PDF pages.