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.
- Select the Tools tab.
- Select Edit PDF in the Tools Center.
- Select Crop Pages in the Edit PDF toolbar.
- Drag your pointer to create a rectangle over the part of the page you want to keep.
- (Optional) Use the resizing handles on the corners to adjust the size of the rectangle as necessary.
- Double-click inside the rectangle to open the Set Page Boxes dialog box.
- (Optional) Adjust the margins as necessary.
- (Optional) Expand the crop to all pages, a page range, or only even or add pages.
- Select the 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.
- Select the Page Thumbnails button.
- Select the cropped page in the Page Thumbnails pane.
- Select the Options button.
- Select Crop Pages from the drop-down menu.
- Select the Set to Zero button in the Set Page Boxes dialog box.
- 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.
- Select the Edit menu (PC users see figure 16) or Acrobat menu (Mac users see figure 17).
- Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
- Select Content Editing in the Preferences dialog box.
- Deselect the Enable Auto-adjust layout by default option.
- Select the OK button.
- Save your PDF and restart Adobe Acrobat to activate the change.