How to Crop a PDF

Cropping PDF pages can help you remove unnecessary white margins for a better visual. In addition, when facing a document composed of pages of different sizes,  crop PDF pages can create consistency within a PDF. But how to crop a PDF efficiently? This article provides two free methods: cropping PDF online or using professional software for a more precise edit.

Crop PDF Online for Free

If you want to skip the hassle of downloading and installing software, an online cropping tool is your best choice—especially when you need to quickly trim a document to fit onto a sheet of printed paper.

How to crop PDF online with a few steps? We tested five different online editing tools and recommended the one that best meets user needs - SmallPDF, which allows users to crop PDF free.

1. Go to Small PDF official website;

2. Click Tools on the top navigation bar and choose Crop PDF;

3. Tap Crop icon on the toolbar and box the cropping area;

4. Select Apply selection to all pages if needed.

5. After finishing, you can download the file.

SmallPDF offers a smooth and fast editing experience, letting you open and export documents in seconds—perfect for users with basic cropping needs. However, like most online tools, it has its shortcomings. You can not process PDF without an internet connection, and it offers only basic features and lacks advanced customization options. That’s why, besides online PDF cropping, we also recommend a more flexible offline solution — PDF Reader Pro.

PDF Reader Pro offers users a wide range of PDF editing tools including Crop PDF. Whether you are a Mac user or Windows user, PDF Reader Pro can help you crop your PDFs in a more intelligent way with adjustable parameters. 

How to Crop a PDF on Mac

PDF Reader Pro allows you to crop PDF pages with a custom area or quickly remove white margins for whole PDF pages in a second. Now, let’s explore the two different types of cropping.

1. Crop PDF with Custom

In the custom cropping mode, you can trim a PDF margin by either boxing an area directly or setting precise page size parameters, giving you full control over the document's layout.

1. Download PDF Reader Pro Mac;

2. Click Edit on the toolbar, then choose Crop;

3. You can box an area directly on the reading page for a fast cropping;

4. To set the specific parameters, you can adjust the value of Page Size or  Page Margins;

5. Choose the applied pages from All Pages, Old Pages, Even Pages, and Custom Pages;

6. Click Apply.

2. Smartly Crop Entire PDF in a Second

In addition to area cropping, PDF Reader Pro supports automatically cropping white margin of an entire document with one click, making it faster to refine your document size. 

Think about this situation, when dealing with a large document spanning hundreds of pages, manually cropping each page can be incredibly time-consuming. The challenge becomes even more frustrating if the white space varies across different pages, making it nearly impossible to apply a single crop setting to the entire document.

Fortunately, the page crop tool in PDF Reader Pro helps you overcome this challenge well. There are two different modes to crop entire PDFs in PDF Reader Pro: Content-based Crop and Ratio Fixed Crop.

• Content-based Crop

When your PDF document has inconsistent white space across pages, this mode is the perfect solution. PDF Reader Pro automatically trims the margins based on the white space of each page, ensuring a clean, balanced, and visually cohesive layout throughout the document.

How to crop PDF on Mac with content-based mode? Here is a simple guide:

1. Download PDF Reader Pro Mac;

2. Click Edit on the toolbar, then choose Crop;

3. Tick Content-based Crop;

4. Click Apply to apply the changes.

• Ratio Fixed Crop

Fixed-ratio cropping ensures a fixed and uniform page size across the entire document. If the white space on each page is relatively similar, this mode is the ideal choice.

How to crop a PDF on Mac with ratio-fixed mode? Follow the simple guide below:

1. Download PDF Reader Pro Mac;

2. Click Edit on the toolbar, then choose Crop;

3. Tick Ratio Fixed Crop;

4. Click Apply to apply the changes.

Besides Mac devices, Windows users can enjoy the advanced cropping tools we mentioned above.

How to Crop a PDF on Windows

PDF Reader Pro now offers consistent cross-platform functionality, allowing you to share your subscription benefits across both Windows and Mac devices with a single account. On Windows, you can also crop with custom by selecting a specific area or setting precise parameters, as well as utilize the one-click smart cropping feature. 

How to crop a PDF on Windows?  Here’s how it works:

1. Download PDF Reader Pro Windows;

2. Click Edit on the toolbar, then choose Crop;

3. To crop whole PDF with one click, choose Content-based Crop or Ratio Fixed Crop, then click Apply

4. To crop pages with a custom area, you can box an area on the reading page and click Apply. Set the page range if needed, you can apply the changes to All Pages, Old Pages, Even Pages, or Customized Pages.

Note: you can also set the value of page size or page margins, then click Apply. All the pages will be cropped with customized parameters. 

Common Use Cases for PDF Crop

Why did cropping tools in PDF become so important and common? Here we show 3 different cases for cropping pages.

Crop to Fit Standard Print Sizes

Why is the feature of customizing Page Size parameters crucial for PDF editors? Sometimes, the highly specialized documents have very strict requirements when it comes to page size, especially for printing. To ensure the content perfectly fits standard print sizes, we often need to crop the pages to the exact dimensions needed.

Enhancing Readability on Digital Devices 

PDFs with large white margins can be difficult to read on tablets and mobile screens. Cropping eliminates redundant white space, allowing text and images to be more centered and properly scaled for a better reading experience.

Standardizing Reports and Presentations 

In business and academic occasions, professionalism and a beautiful document layout is essential. Cropping pages to a uniform size creates a polished appearance, ensuring that reports, proposals, or presentations maintain a harmonious look.

      
Crop PDF Online or Crop PDF Offline? 

Both methods have their pros and cons, and the best choice depends on your specific needs.

Online tools are more convenient, allowing you to crop PDF free without downloading any software. Crop PDF online is ideal for simple tasks and quick edits. However, their features are quite basic—they lack advanced settings and cannot intelligently crop when it comes to the varying white space across pages. Additionally, online tools require an internet connection, making them inaccessible in offline environments.

Offline software requires installation of APPs, but they offer more advanced settings. If you're working with large and complex documents, offline software is the better choice. Beyond page cropping, it provides a full suite of PDF editing tools, allowing you to modify text and other content within the document, which can not be achieved with online tools.

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