How to crop PDF
Do you have to crop the pages of a PDF document but you don’t know which tools to use to do it? Have you heard of a certain paid software that allows you to do this but you have no desire to put your hand to your wallet? No problem, you’ve come to the right place (indeed, the post!), At the right time. In fact, in the following lines I will go to show you, step by step, how to crop PDF using some special free tools that can be used both from computer and from the Web. Happy?
Whether you simply need to thin the margins of a page of a PDF document, to optimize it for viewing on a smartphone, tablet and / or ebook reader or to change the layout of your file it makes no difference, below you will find some tools that can prove to be more than useful in all cases. You just have to choose what you think can do the most for you and that’s it, really.
Then? What are you still doing standing there? Start taking a few minutes of free time now, make yourself comfortable and concentrate on reading this guide. I am sure that in the end you will be able to tell yourself more than satisfied as well as very happy to finally be able to understand how to crop PDF. What do you say, we bet?
Briss (Windows, macOS and Linux)
The first tool I invite you to contact if your need is to crop PDF is Briss . This is a free and open source application that perfectly fulfills the task for which it is in charge – that is to say crop PDFs – and that also allows you to optimize documents for viewing on devices such as tablets and ebook readers. It is compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux but to work it requires Java software (I explained how to download and install it on your computer in my guide on the subject ).
To download Briss on your computer, connect to the official website of the program via the link I provided you a moment ago and click first on the entry http://sourceforge.net/projects/briss/files / and then on release 0.9 and briss- 0.9.zip . When the download is complete, extract the software files from the ZIP package that contains them and start the executable briss-0.9.exe or briss-0.9.jar if you are using a Mac.
In the window that is shown to you at this point, select the Load File item from the File menu and choose the document to cut out. Then click Cancel and use the cursor to outline the area of the document to keep. When the operation is complete, select the Crop PDF item from the Action menu , indicate the folder in which you want to save the output PDF and that’s it.
K2pdfopt (Windows, macOS and Linux)
The software to crop PDF that I proposed in the previous lines has not been able to attract your attention in a particular way because, how can I say, too simple? Then take a look at K2pdfopt immediately and you will see that you will not regret it. It is in fact a free application full of useful features that allows you to crop and optimize the viewing of PDFs on devices such as Kindle, Kobo and other ebook readers. Officially it works on Windows, macOS and Linux but the Mac version does not seem to be fully compatible with the latest versions of the Apple operating system.
To download K2pdfopt on your computer, connected to its official website via the link I have just indicated, copy the verification code in the text field located in the left sidebar and click on the button for the version of the operating system in use ( eg Windows 64-bit ) that you find in correspondence with the most updated version of the program (eg v2.40 ).
When the download is complete, start the program using the file obtained and click on the Add file button to select the document or documents you intend to cut. Then, select the target device of the PDF from the Device drop-down menu and adjust all the parameters of your interest.
Using the fields located in the upper right part of the program window you can specify the page size ( width , height and DPI ) while using the Conversion mode drop-down menu you can indicate the document conversion mode. In the Crop areas box you will find the commands to indicate the thickness of the margins to be cut (in inches) while in the lower right there is a box to preview the output document and in the lower left there are the rest of the options to customize the PDF to be cut.
Once you have adjusted all your preferences, click on the Preview button at the bottom right to see a preview of the final document and, if you like it, click on Convert all files to start the cropping process of your PDFs.
If you want to “manually” cut the margins of a PDF, after opening it in K2pdfopt, click on one of the Select buttons located in the Crop areas box , select the area of the page to keep with the cursor and click on Set Margins to save the changes .
LibreOffice (Windows, macOS and Linux)
You can also crop PDFs with LibreOffice , the well-known free and open source productivity suite that I spent many times offering you as a valid free alternative to Microsoft Office. The procedure to follow is very simple, just change the format of the pages. Now I’ll explain everything.
To download LibreOffice on your PC, connect to its official website using the link I just indicated and click on the Download version xx button . If you are using a Mac, also click on the Translated User Interface button to download the LibreOffice Italian translation package (which is included as standard in the Windows version of the suite). At the end of the download you have to proceed differently depending on the operating system you use.
Subsequently, if you are using a Windows PC, open the LibreOffice installation package ( LibreOffice_xx_Win_x86.msi ) and complete the setup by clicking on Next twice in a row and then on Install , Yes and Finish . If you use a Mac, open the package in .dmg format that contains LibreOffice, drag the suite icon into the macOS Applications folder and open the software by right clicking on its icon and selecting the Open item from the menu that appears.
At this point, close LibreOffice, open the .dmg package that contains the Italian language pack for the suite, right-click on the LibreOffice Language Pack icon and select the Open item from the menu that opens. Then click the Install button twice in a row and, if you are told that you do not have high enough privileges to continue, click the Yes button , identify me to authenticate and type the password of your user account on macOS.
Now you can take action and start cropping your PDFs with LibreOffice. Therefore proceed to start LibreOffice and then go to the File menu , click on Open , select the file on which you intend to go to act and wait for the document to be imported into Draw , the application of the suite for creating printable documents.
At this point, go to the Format menu at the top, click on Page , select the format in which you want to adapt the pages of the document from the appropriate drop-down menu, put the check mark next to the item Adapt the object to the format of the paper so that the contents of the document fit the page size and then click OK to save the changes.
If necessary, you can also change the orientation of the pages by placing the check mark next to the Horizontal and Vertical items and adjust the thickness of the margins (in pixels) by filling in the appropriate text fields.
When you are satisfied with the result, select Export to PDF from the File menu , click OK and select the folder in which to save the output document.
Online2PDF (Web)
Don’t feel like downloading and installing new programs on your computer but still need to crop PDFs? Then you can turn to Online2PDF , a very famous Web service for editing and converting PDF documents that I have told you about on several occasions here on my site. Thanks to this service you can crop the margins of your documents and enlarge / reduce their content in a few clicks. In short, try it and you will see that you will not regret it.
All you have to do to use it is to connect to the main page of Onlne2PDF using the link I just provided, click on the Select files button and select the PDFs to edit.
Once you have selected the files on which you intend to go to act, go to the Layout tab located at the bottom right, set the item 1st page – with custom setting from the PDF page layout drop-down menu and adjust your preferences using the menus that appear at the bottom: you can change the page layout, specify the size of the outer margin of each page and adjust the size of the content.
After adjusting all the parameters of your interest, click on the Convert button and wait for your PDFs to be processed and then downloaded to your computer. Later, if you haven’t made any changes to your web browser’s default settings, you’ll find your cropped PDF file in your computer’s Downloads folder. Simple, right?
Note: The service imposes an upload limit of 50 MB for each single file and a total of 100 MB. Also, you can select up to 20 files at a time.
Other useful solutions
If you don’t need to crop PDF to redefine the margins of your files but are looking for a tool that allows you to split or remove pages from documents, let me suggest you take a look at my tutorial on how to split a PDF file and my guide on how to extract pages from PDF in which I have indicated various software and online services that should prove particularly useful for your needs. You can also find more useful tools in my post dedicated to PDF editing programs .
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a valid system that allows you to transform your PDF documents into ebooks compatible with all the ebook readers currently on the market, you can read the instructions I gave you in my post on how to transform PDF into ePub in which, in fact, I told you about a free software thanks to which it is possible to convert all the main formats of electronic books between them. Please, take a look at it at least!
