How can I crop PDF pages for free?

You can crop PDF pages using online tools or professional PDF software such as PDFgear. Cropping lets you remove white borders from a PDF by selecting the area to keep, with options to apply the same crop to multiple pages or a selected page range.

Crop multiple PDF pages online with PDFgear

PDFgear’s online PDF cropper lets you crop a PDF online for free without installing software or creating an account. It works in browsers on Windows and Mac and processes the document locally without uploading it to a server.

1. Open the cropper and click Select PDF File.
2. Drag the cropping rectangle around the content you want to keep.
3. Choose All Pages, Current Page, or Page Range to specify where the crop should apply.
4. Apply the crop and download the PDF.
5. Review the affected pages.

Use Page Range to crop multiple PDF pages at once when their content occupies a similar area.

Choose All Pages only when you want to apply the same crop to all PDF pages and have checked that it fits every page.

Crop PDF pages offline with PDFgear Desktop

PDFgear’s free desktop app lets you crop a PDF offline on Windows or Mac without creating an account. You can adjust margins and crop multiple PDF pages at once, applying the same settings to the entire document or selected pages.

1. Download and open PDFgear, then open your PDF.
2. Select Page > Crop Pages.
3. Drag to select the area you want to keep.
4. In the dialog box, adjust the margins and select All Pages, Current Page, or Custom Pages.
5. Apply the crop and save a new copy.

Use Custom Pages to trim PDF margins on pages with matching layouts while leaving wider tables for a separate adjustment. Choose All Pages to apply the same crop to all PDF pages only after checking that the selected area accommodates every page’s content.

Use Adobe Acrobat to crop PDF pages

Adobe Acrobat is another desktop option for cropping PDF pages. Acrobat Pro also includes advanced page-box controls such as TrimBox and BleedBox for print production, though these are not needed for simply trimming white borders. The free Acrobat Reader does not include page-cropping tools.

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat and select Edit > Crop page.
2. Draw a rectangle around the content to retain.
3. Double-click inside the rectangle to open Set Page Boxes.
4. Adjust the margins and select the required page range, then click OK.
5. Repeat for pages needing different margins and save a copy.

If your document contains both regular pages and pages with wider tables, apply a different set of margins to each group. There is no need to make all cropped pages the same width.

However, cropping a PDF does not necessarily reduce file size: content outside the crop boundary may remain in the file. Use cropping to adjust the visible page area, not to permanently remove confidential information. Before sharing, check that table edges and footnotes remain visible.