How to Crop Pages in Adobe Acrobat (PC & Mac)

This tutorial shows how to crop pages in Adobe Acrobat. You may want to crop pages after combining files into one PDF or converting a large image to a PDF.

This process does not actually delete parts of pages. Instead, it hides unwanted areas of pages. As such, we will also look at how to return cropped pages to their original size.

Acrobat’s Auto-adjust layout option can conflict with the Crop Pages tool. So, the bonus section at the end shows how to disable Auto-adjust layout.

Table of Contents:

How to Crop Pages
How to Return Cropped Pages to Their Original Size
Bonus Section: How to Disable Auto-Adjust Layout

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The images below are from Adobe Acrobat Pro. This tutorial also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2020 and Adobe Acrobat 2017. In addition, the steps are the same for PC and Mac.

Adobe’s free PDF display software, Acrobat Reader, doesn’t provide a way to crop pages. However, pages cropped in Adobe Acrobat will appear cropped when viewed with Acrobat Reader.

How to Crop Pages

(Optional) Use the zoom menu to adjust the canvas so you can see the entire page you want to crop.

Zoom menu in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 1. Zoom menu

Select the Tools tab.

Tools tab in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 2. Tools tab

Select Edit PDF in the Tools Center.

Edit PDF button in the Tools Center in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 3. Edit PDF

Select Crop Pages in the Edit PDF toolbar.

Crop Pages button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 4. Crop Pages button

Drag your pointer to create a rectangle over the part of the page you want to keep.

Crop page selection in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 5. Crop page selection

(Optional) Use the resizing handles on the corners to adjust the size of the rectangle as necessary.

Crop selection resizing handles in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 6. Resizing handles

Double-click inside the rectangle to open the Set Page Boxes dialog box.
(Optional) Adjust the margins as necessary.

Margin Controls in the Set Page Boxes dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 7. Margin options

(Optional) Expand the crop to all pages, a page range, or only even or add pages.

Page Range options in the Set Page Boxes dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 8. Page range options

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Set Page Boxes dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 9. OK button

Your page or pages should now be cropped.

How to Return Cropped Pages to Their Original Size

Select the arrow on the left side of the canvas if the navigation pane is not open.

Navigation pane expansion arrow in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 10. Navigation pane expansion arrow

Select the Page Thumbnails button.

Page Thumbnails button in the navigation pane in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 11. Page Thumbnails button

Select the cropped page in the Page Thumbnails pane.

Cropped page selected in the Page Thumbnails pane in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 12. Thumbnail for cropped page selected

Select the Options button.

Options button in the Page Thumbnails pane in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 13. Options button

Select Crop Pages from the drop-down menu.

Crop Pages option the Option menu in the Navigation Pane in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 14. Crop Pages option

Select the Set to Zero button in the Set Page Boxes dialog box.

Set to Zero button in the Set Page Boxes dialog box in Adobe Acrobat — Figure 15. Set to Zero button

Select the OK button (see figure 9).

The page should be returned to its original size.

How to Disable Auto-Adjust Layout

If the Crop Pages tool does not work as expected, you may need to turn off the Auto-adjust layout option.

Important Note: At the time this tutorial was published, the Auto-adjust layout option was not available to all Adobe Acrobat users, so you may not see this option in your Preferences dialog box.