Cut white space and scanner borders off every page by setting a new visible area. The crop runs in the browser, holds the layout intact and can be reversed later.
Document format work by OnlinePCApps since 2013
Each of these carries an edge that adds nothing. Trimming it makes the content larger and the page cleaner.
A page built for print wastes half the screen on a phone. Trimming the margins makes the text fill the display, so the same document is far easier to read on a small screen.
A scan carries a dark border, a page skew and binding-hole shadows at the edges. Those edges make a document look rough and can lower the accuracy of text recognition.
A press proof arrives with registration, crop and trim marks in the margin. Those marks are meant for the print shop and have no place in the version shared with a reader.
Pick a PDF or drop it onto the panel above. The file opens locally and its page sizes are read, which gives the crop something to measure against.
Margins are trimmed by edge, or the white space is removed to fit the content. The crop applies to one page, a range or the whole document.
The trimmed file downloads beside the original. The source is left untouched, and the crop can be reset later since the full page is still inside the file.
Cropping a PDF sets a new visible window over each page. The value is in doing it so the original can always come back.
A margin is set on the top, bottom, left and right in points or inches, so the same amount comes off every side or one edge alone is pulled in.
The content is detected and the visible area is pulled in to fit it, which clears the blank border without measuring a single edge by hand.
A crop covers a single page, an odd or even set, a custom range or the whole file, so a cover page can keep its size while the rest is trimmed.
The crop moves the visible boundary rather than deleting anything, so the full page stays in the file and the trim can be reset at any point.
Cropping, trimming margins, setting the CropBox and adjusting the bounding box all describe the same action. This tool changes the visible window over the page and leaves the underlying content in place.
Both trim the margins off a PDF. What sets them apart is where the document travels and what caps the job.
| Point of comparison | This tool Cropped in the browser Trimmed on the device | Hosted croppers Uploaded and processed on a server |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file goes | Kept on the machine | Sent to a server |
| Crop can be reversed | Full page kept in the file | Usually, same method |
| Sign-up or watermark | Neither | Common above a free tier |
| Very large files | Limited by the browser memory | Run on their servers |
| Compress right after | A separate step | Often chained in one flow |
Those last two rows belong to the hosted tools, and they are the fair case for uploading. A document beyond what a laptop can hold fits better on a server, and a hosted suite can crop then compress without a second upload. Every other row stays with the browser, where the file never travels at all.
Setting a crop is a change to the page boundary written into the file. It needs no processing on a server, so the browser reads the document, adjusts the visible area and writes it back with nothing sent out.
Since the file is never received here, there is no store to secure and no retention policy to trust. A cropped document that may hold sensitive margins should still be flattened before sharing, because a plain crop hides that content rather than removing it.
A PDF page carries several boundary rectangles. Cropping changes one of them and leaves the rest as they were.
| Page box | Role | What cropping does to it |
|---|---|---|
| MediaBox | full page size | The physical extent of the sheet, the largest box. Cropping leaves it unchanged, which is why the trimmed content is still inside the file. |
| CropBox | the visible area | The visible and printable area a reader displays, also called the bounding box. This is the box a crop shrinks, so the page shows only the area kept. |
| BleedBox | print bleed area | The margin beyond the trim where color runs off the edge for printing. A crop does not touch it. |
| TrimBox | final trimmed size | The intended page size after a press cuts the sheet. It stays as set by the file. |
| ArtBox | content extent | The boundary of the meaningful artwork on the page. It is left in place when the CropBox moves. |
| Units | points, 1/72 inch | Margins are measured in points, where 72 points make an inch. A half inch trim is 36 points on that edge. |
| Hidden content | stays in the file | Content outside the new CropBox is hidden, not deleted, so a flatten step is needed to remove it for good. |
| File size | little change | Because the content is still present under the crop, the file does not shrink. A compress step handles size. |
| Resolution | kept, no re-render | Setting a boundary does not redraw the page, so text and images keep their full quality and resolution. A crop never softens the content it keeps. |
| Reversibility | reset restores it | Setting the CropBox back to the MediaBox brings the whole page back, so a crop is never a one-way loss. |
The Standards This Follows
The page boxes a crop works with are defined in the PDF specification. The documents below set out the boundaries and the format.
Each of these trims a page. They differ in how permanent the crop is and how much they can automate.
Every method here keeps the file on the machine it opened on, apart from hosted croppers that ask for an upload. The tool above does too.
Cropping a PDF is not the same as cropping an image. These three points are where the difference matters.
A crop moves the visible window and leaves the trimmed content in the file. That is what makes it reversible, and it is why hidden margins can still be extracted from the document.
Because the content behind the crop is still there, the file does not get smaller. A run through a compressor after cropping is what reduces the size for email or storage.
When the trimmed area holds something private, a plain crop is not enough. Flattening or reprinting the page bakes in the visible area and drops the hidden content.
The browser tool crops one document at a time, held in memory. A folder of scans with the same border, or a batch that runs every week, is work for the desktop edition, which reads from disk and detects the content on each page.
Point it at a directory and every PDF inside is cropped to the same margins or auto-trimmed to its content.
Each page is measured and the white border removed on its own, so mixed page sizes still come out clean.
A saved rule crops a folder on a schedule, which suits a scan archive that grows week by week.
Free, no sign-up and no upload. The page is trimmed on the device and the crop can be reset whenever it is needed.