Skip to content
Lizely

Crop PDF

Trim the margins of every page in a PDF right in your browser — no upload, no signup.

Privacy: your files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser.

How to use

  1. 1.Click Browse PDF and choose the PDF you want to crop, or drag it onto the page — it is read locally in your browser.
  2. 2.Pick a margin unit (points, millimeters, or percent), then enter how much to trim from the Top, Right, Bottom, and Left of every page.
  3. 3.Click Crop PDF and download the cropped copy from the result link — the same margins are applied to all pages, and nothing is uploaded.

About Crop PDF

Crop PDF is a free, private tool that trims the visible margins of every page in a PDF document directly inside your web browser. Scanned pages often arrive with thick white borders, dark scanner edges, or crooked framing; slides exported to PDF can carry unwanted headers and footers; and book or magazine scans frequently include extra space that wastes screen area and ink. With this tool you choose exactly how much to shave off each side — top, right, bottom, and left — and the same crop is applied to all pages at once, giving you a cleaner, tighter document in seconds. You can enter margins in points (pt, the native PDF unit where 72 points equal one inch), in millimeters, or as a percentage of the page size, and switch units at any time without re-uploading. A live page-size hint shows the current page dimensions in your chosen unit so you can pick sensible values, and built-in validation stops you before you accidentally crop away the whole page or enter a negative number. It is important to understand what cropping does and does not do. Cropping changes only the CropBox — the rectangle a PDF viewer uses to decide which part of each page to display. It does not delete, flatten, or destroy any of the underlying page content. The text, images, and vector graphics that fall outside the new crop are still stored inside the file; they are simply hidden from view. This is a deliberate, non-destructive design choice that mirrors how professional PDF editors handle cropping. The practical upside is that your crop is fully reversible: another tool, or this one with zero margins, can restore the original view because nothing was truly thrown away. The trade-off to know is that cropping alone does not shrink the file or guarantee that hidden content can never be recovered, so it is not a redaction tool — if you need to permanently remove sensitive information, use a dedicated redaction or flatten workflow instead. Privacy is a core part of how this tool works. Your PDF never leaves your device. When you pick a file, it is read into memory and processed locally using JavaScript running in your own browser; there is no server upload, no cloud storage, and no tracking of your document contents. That makes it safe for confidential contracts, medical records, financial statements, and any other sensitive material, because the bytes stay on your computer from start to finish. When cropping finishes, the tool builds a new PDF and offers it as a direct download link, so you keep a fresh cropped copy while your original stays untouched. Because everything runs client-side, the tool is fast, works offline once the page has loaded, and costs nothing to use. Password-protected or corrupted PDFs cannot be read without their password and are reported clearly so you can unlock them first. Combine cropping with merging, splitting, or rotating to build a complete, no-upload PDF cleanup routine.

Methodology & sources

Cropping sets each page's CropBox using pdf-lib. Given the page MediaBox and the four trim margins, the new box is computed in PDF user space (origin at the bottom-left): x = left, y = bottom, width = width − left − right, height = height − top − bottom. Margins in mm or % are converted to points (72 pt = 1 inch) before applying. Page content is never deleted — only the visible frame changes.

Frequently asked questions

Does cropping delete the content outside the margins?
No. Cropping only changes each page's CropBox — the frame a PDF viewer uses to decide what to show. The text and images outside the new frame are still stored in the file, just hidden. This makes the crop reversible, but it also means cropping is not redaction; to permanently remove sensitive content, use a dedicated redaction or flatten tool instead.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The file is read and cropped entirely inside your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or sent anywhere, so confidential contracts, records, and statements stay private on your own device from start to finish.
Can I crop each page by a different amount, or use millimeters and percent?
The same top, right, bottom, and left margins are applied to every page in one pass, which is ideal for scans and slide decks where all pages share a layout. You can enter those margins in points, millimeters, or as a percentage of the page size, and switch units at any time without re-loading the file.
What happens with already-cropped or rotated PDFs?
Margins are always measured from the original full page, so cropping a file that was already cropped resets the previous crop rather than trimming further from the visible box. On pages that carry a rotation flag (common with phone scans), the margins apply to the page's unrotated orientation, so “Top” may not match the edge you see on screen — the tool shows a note when it detects a rotated page.

Related tools

PDF Tools guides

View all