Crop PDF: settings and best results

What does Crop PDF do?

Crop PDF trims the edges off the pages of a PDF, on your own computer. Use it to cut away white borders from scans, wide margins around slides, or a scanner bed around a small document. You set how much to take off each side, or draw the crop on the page in the Crop Studio, and Hangar applies it to every page of every file you add.

It takes PDF files and gives back PDF files, one for each file you add.

01Step 1: Add your PDFs

Click Tools in the sidebar, open the PDF tab and click Crop PDF. You can also type "crop pdf" in the search box at the top.

Drop your PDFs on the queue, or click it to pick files. To add more later, use Add more. Folders are not accepted, so select the files inside a folder instead.

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1. 1mm or pt
2. 2Link all sides
3. 3Margin fields
4. 4Open Crop Studio
5. 5Run crop

03Step 3: Draw the crop in the Crop Studio (optional)

Click Open Crop Studio, or the Adjust button on a file in the queue. The page appears with the area outside the crop dimmed.

• Drag inside the frame to move it, and drag a round handle to resize it. The margin fields on the right follow along.
• Use the arrows next to Page 1 / 3 to check other pages, and the arrows on the right to switch files.
• All pages sets the crop for every page that does not have its own. It is the same crop as the fields in the side panel.
• This page gives only the current page its own crop. An amber dot appears next to the page number, and the sidebar lists your Custom pages. Click Reset this page to the global crop to undo it.

Click Done to go back. For more on hands-on editors, see Studios.

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1. 1Crop frame: drag to move
2. 2Handle: drag to resize
3. 3Page arrows
4. 4All pages or This page
5. 5Margin fields
6. 6Switch files

04Step 4: Run, then check the result

Check where the files will go: Default output folder saves them in your workspace's output folder, in a crop folder with a subfolder for today's date, such as 10-15. Click Change to pick another folder for this run. Then click Run crop.

Each file is saved as a new PDF with -cropped added to its name. When the run ends, each file shows Done. Click View to page through a result and check that nothing you need was cut off. Open folder takes you to the files.

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1. 1Done
2. 2View
3. 3Saved to
4. 4Open folder

Every setting

Margins (mm or pt)

The unit for the four margin fields. Switching only changes how the numbers are shown.

• RangeMillimeters or points
• Defaultmm

Link all sides

When on, typing in any margin field sets all four sides to that value.

• RangeOn or off
• DefaultOff

Left, Right, Top, Bottom

How much to trim from that edge of every page, measured from the edge as the page is shown.

• Range0 or more
• Default0

All pages or This page

Whether the frame you draw applies to every page, or only to the page on screen.

• RangeIn the Crop Studio
• DefaultAll pages

Hangar remembers your margins until you close the app. Before you crop a new batch, check that the numbers are still the ones you want.

How do I get a clean crop?

1. Open the Crop Studio on the file with the most margin to remove, and draw the frame around the content you want to keep.
2. Step through a few pages with the page arrows. On a long document, a header, footer or page number near the edge is easy to cut off.
3. If one page is different, such as a wide table or a sideways page, give it its own crop with This page.
4. Run, then check the result with View before you send it.

For a batch of different documents, such as scans from different scanners, crop each kind in its own run. The same margins on every file only work well when the files have the same layout.

Why does my result look wrong?

• Every file is marked Kept. All four margins were 0, so there was nothing to crop. Hangar saved an unchanged copy of each file. Set a margin and run again.
• Content was cut off on some pages. The same distances are trimmed from every page. On a page that is smaller, or laid out differently, they can reach the content. Give that page its own crop in the Crop Studio.
• The crop is much smaller than expected. Check the unit. 12 points is about 4 millimeters, while 12 millimeters is about 34 points.
• A cropped file got cropped again. Margins are measured from the page as it is now, so cropping an already cropped file trims further. Start from your original file instead.
• Margins larger than the page. If the left and right margins, or the top and bottom margins, add up to more than the page, Hangar shrinks them both so a sliver of the page remains. Lower the numbers.

Limits

• Crop PDF accepts PDF files only. To crop photos, use Crop image.
• Cropping hides content, it does not remove it, and it does not make the file smaller.
• Crop PDF cannot widen a crop or restore a cropped area. Keep your original.
• Settings for professional printing, such as bleed, are removed from cropped pages. If a print shop needs bleed, crop in the app that made the file instead.
• Password-protected PDFs, including ones that open freely but block printing or editing, stop with a message that the file is password-protected. Remove the password with Unlock PDF first.
• Damaged PDFs are repaired automatically when possible. If a file cannot be read at all, it fails with a message that it may be damaged or not a real PDF.

If a file fails, its row shows the reason. A file failed: what to check lists the common causes and fixes. For where your files are saved, see Where Hangar saves your files.