How to crop a PDF?
Learn how to crop a PDF with different software tools. Discover step-by-step instructions for cropping PDFs with Sejda, Adobe Acrobat Pro and GIMP, find out why PDFsam Basic cannot crop at all, and choose the best option for your needs.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- #1 How to crop a PDF with Sejda
- #2 Why PDFsam Basic cannot crop a PDF
- #3 How to crop a PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro
- #4 How to crop a PDF with GIMP
- Conclusion
Introduction
Cropping a PDF can be a useful technique to remove unwanted or unnecessary content, focus on specific sections, or adjust the dimensions of a document. Various software tools provide cropping capabilities for PDF files, allowing users to customize their documents according to their needs. In this article, we will look at four popular tools: three of them can crop a PDF, and one is often recommended for the job but cannot do it.
Comparative Table:
| Tool | Sejda | PDFsam Basic | Adobe Acrobat Pro | GIMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User-Friendliness | Easy to use | Intuitive interface | User-friendly interface | Moderate learning curve |
| Availability | Online platform | Desktop application | Desktop application | Free and open-source |
| Cropping Options | Crop margins or exact dimensions | Not available, cropping is in the paid PDFsam Visual | Crop margins or custom page size | Crop selection |
| Additional Features | Merge, split, and more | Merge, split, rotate, extract | Editing and annotation tools | Advanced image editing |
| Cost | Free and premium versions | Free, but PDFsam Visual is paid (14-day trial) | Paid subscription; Adobe’s online crop tool is free with an Adobe account | Free |
#1 How to crop a PDF with Sejda
Sejda is a free online tool that allows you to crop PDFs quickly and easily. With Sejda, you can easily remove unwanted margins or white space around the edges of a PDF document.
How to crop a PDF for free with Sejda:
Step 1: Go to the Sejda website
The first step is to go to the Sejda website. Once you’re on the website, you’ll see the Sejda crop PDF tool.
Step 2: Upload the PDF file you want to crop
The next step is to upload the PDF file you want to crop. You can do this in one of three ways:
- Drag and drop the PDF file onto the designated area.
- Click on “Choose Files” and select the PDF file from your computer.
- Click on “Google Drive” or “Dropbox” to upload the file from your cloud storage.
Step 3: Choose how the crop should be applied
Once the file is loaded, Sejda asks how you want to crop it: Same crop size across all pages, Crop each page as much as possible, or Preview pages and choose crop areas if different pages need different crops. Pick one and click “Continue”.
Step 4: Adjust the crop area
Next, you’ll need to adjust the crop area. Sejda provides two different methods for doing this: manual and automatic.
Manual cropping: To set the crop area by hand, drag the edges of the crop frame on the page, or type exact Top, Bottom, Left and Right margins, in inches or centimetres, in the fields above the page. The Preview mode switch (Blended, Page by page, Odd & even) changes how the pages are rendered while you work, and “Apply to all” copies one crop area to every page.
Automatic cropping: If you want Sejda to work out the crop area for you, click on the “Auto-crop” button right above the page. Sejda measures the white space around the content and trims the margins for you.
Step 5: Crop the file and download it
When the crop area looks right, click on the “Crop PDF” button. Sejda processes the document and then shows a “Download” button so you can save the cropped file to your computer. Two things are worth knowing: the free service takes documents of up to 200 pages or 50 MB and allows 3 tasks per hour, and, as Sejda points out next to the crop fields, the content outside the crop area is hidden rather than deleted from the file.
Cropping a PDF can be a useful way to remove unwanted margins or white space around the edges of a document. With Sejda, you can upload your PDF, choose how the crop should be applied, set the crop area by hand or with Auto-crop, click “Crop PDF”, and download the result to your computer. Give Sejda a try the next time you need to crop a PDF.
#2 Why PDFsam Basic cannot crop a PDF
PDFsam Basic is a free and open source desktop application for PDF page work, but it cannot crop a PDF. It ships six tools, merge, split, mix, rotate, extract pages and insert pages, and none of them changes the visible page area, so there is no crop button to hunt for.
Cropping belongs to PDFsam Visual, the paid application from the same developer. Its crop tool stacks all the pages on top of each other so you can set one crop area and apply it to the whole document, and it is a premium feature: after a 14-day trial it needs a subscription or a licence key.
If you want to crop without paying, use Sejda in your browser or GIMP on your computer, both described in this article.
#3 How to crop a PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro
Cropping a PDF can be useful for a variety of reasons, such as removing unwanted margins or trimming a specific section of a page. The free Adobe Acrobat Reader cannot do it: the “Edit PDF” and “Crop Pages” entries you see there are prompts to subscribe. On the desktop, cropping is a paid Acrobat Pro feature, and if you do not have it, Adobe’s online Crop PDF tool crops in the browser and is free with an Adobe account. The steps below describe Acrobat Pro.
- To begin, open the PDF in Acrobat Pro and select the “Edit PDF” tool from the right-hand menu. From there, select the “Crop Pages” option. This will bring up a crop box around the edges of the page.
- To crop the page, simply click and drag the handles of the crop box to adjust the size and position of the cropped area. The dimensions of the crop box can also be adjusted manually by entering values in the “Width” and “Height” fields.
- Once the desired cropping area has been selected, click on the “Apply” button. This will crop the page to the selected area, so that anything outside the crop box is no longer visible.
- If you need to crop multiple pages, you can do so by selecting the “All Pages” option in the “Crop Pages” dialog box. This will apply the same crop settings to all pages in the document. Alternatively, you can choose to crop specific pages by selecting the “Selected Pages” option and entering the page range you wish to crop.
- Finally, it’s important to note that cropping only hides the area outside the crop box. The content stays in the file, the file does not get smaller, and the crop can be undone with “Set To Zero” in the Set Page Boxes dialog. To get rid of the cropped area for good, use Acrobat Pro’s Remove Hidden Information tool and tick “Deleted or cropped content”. If you want to preserve the original document, it’s recommended to create a copy of the PDF before cropping.
Cropping a PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro is a simple and effective process that can help remove unwanted margins or trim specific sections of a page. The “Crop Pages” option allows for precise adjustment of the crop box, and the tool can be used on a single page or multiple pages at once. It’s important to remember that cropping only hides whatever falls outside the crop box, so use Remove Hidden Information when the content really has to go, and keep a copy of the original if you may need the full page back.
#4 How to crop a PDF with GIMP
GIMP is a free and open-source image editing software that can also be used to manipulate PDF files. While GIMP is primarily designed to edit raster images, it can import PDF files and allow users to edit individual pages within the document. One of the most common tasks users might want to do with a PDF is to crop it, removing unwanted borders or whitespace around the edges of a page. In this paragraph, we will explore how to crop a PDF using GIMP.
Step 1: Open the PDF file in GIMP
To begin, open GIMP and click on “File” in the top left corner of the window. From the drop-down menu, select “Open.” Navigate to the location of the PDF file you want to crop and select it. In the “Import from PDF” dialog box that appears, select the page or pages you want to edit, then click “Import.”
Step 2: Select the crop tool
With the PDF page now open in GIMP, select the “Crop Tool” from the toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen. The crop tool is represented by a small square with a diagonal line through it. Alternatively, you can press “Shift + C” on your keyboard to activate the crop tool.
Step 3: Define the crop area
Click and drag your mouse over the PDF page to define the area you want to keep. You can adjust the size and position of the crop area by clicking and dragging the handles on the edges of the selection box. Alternatively, you can enter precise values for the crop area in the “Tool Options” panel at the bottom of the screen. Once you are satisfied with the crop area, press “Enter” on your keyboard to apply the crop.
Step 4: Export the cropped PDF
With the PDF page now cropped, it’s time to save the edited file. Click on “File” in the top left corner of the window and select “Export As.” In the dialog box that appears, choose a name and location for the cropped PDF file and select “PDF” as the file type. Keep in mind that GIMP rasterizes the PDF when it imports it, so the quality of the result depends on the resolution you set in the “Import from PDF” dialog in step 1, where 300 dpi or more keeps text looking sharp. The exported PDF holds an image of the page, not selectable text. Finally, click “Export” to save the cropped PDF file.
While GIMP is primarily designed for editing raster images, it can also be used to manipulate PDF files. Cropping a PDF in GIMP is a relatively simple process that involves opening the file, selecting the crop tool, defining the crop area, and exporting the edited file. By following the steps outlined above, users can easily crop unwanted borders or whitespace from a PDF page, making it more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read.
Conclusion
In summary, cropping a PDF is a simple process that can be accomplished using various software tools. Sejda provides an easy-to-use online platform with additional features for PDF manipulation. PDFsam Basic is an intuitive desktop application for splitting, merging and rotating PDFs, but it cannot crop them: that is a feature of the paid PDFsam Visual. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, a popular choice, is a comfortable viewer with annotation tools, while cropping needs Acrobat Pro or Adobe’s free online crop tool. Lastly, GIMP, a free and open-source image editing software, can be used to crop PDFs with advanced customization. Selecting the most suitable tool depends on individual preferences, the availability of features, and the specific needs of the task at hand.
If you want to learn more about how to optimize a PDF file, you can read about it in our previous blog article.
