How can I crop PDF pages for free?

If you want to crop PDF margins automatically across many pages, pdfCropMargins is a useful free, open-source option. It runs locally and can detect content boundaries separately on each page, so wider tables don’t have to use the same crop as narrower text pages.

You’ll need Python. Install it with:

python -m pip install pdfCropMargins

Then run:

pdf-crop-margins -p 10 -o cropped.pdf report.pdf

The -p 10 setting keeps roughly 10% of the detected margins rather than cutting right up to the content. For a more generous border, try -p 20.

If you’d rather inspect the settings visually, launch its graphical interface:

pdf-crop-margins -gui report.pdf

This is especially useful for a long report with mostly blank borders. However, scan shadows or stray marks can affect margin detection. Check the widest tables, headers and footers in the output before treating the crop as finished.