Change a PDF's page size to A4, with nothing cut off

Change the page size, step by step

With Resize PDF it takes a few seconds, on a phone or a computer:

1. Open Resize PDF and choose Page size (A4) under "What to change".
2. Check the paper size. A4 is already picked. Pick Letter, Legal, A3 or A5 instead if that is what you need.
3. Leave Direction on "As it is" unless you have a reason to change it. Portrait and landscape explains when you might.
4. Choose your PDF. The result says "All pages now A4 (210 × 297 mm)", or "3 of 10 pages now A4" when some pages already were.
5. Download the new copy. Its name ends in -A4.pdf, and your original stays as it was.

It is quick. In our tests in Chrome, a 14-page Letter paper became A4 in 0.4 seconds, and a 117-page A4 textbook became Letter in 3.9 seconds.

A handy side use: if every page is already A4, the resizer says "Every page is already A4, so you can keep your original file." So it doubles as a quick way to check a PDF's page size.

A4, Letter and the other sizes

A4 is 210 × 297 mm. It is the usual paper in India, Europe and most of the world. Letter is 8.5 × 11 inches (216 × 279 mm) and is used in the USA and Canada. The two look almost the same, but Letter is about 6 mm wider and about 18 mm shorter. That small difference is enough to cut off a line at the bottom, or a few letters at the sides, when one is printed on the other.

• Legal (8.5 × 14 inches) is as wide as Letter but much longer. It is used for contracts in the USA.
• A3 and A5 belong to the same family as A4. Fold A3 in half and you get A4; fold A4 in half and you get A5. All three have the same shape, which matters when you convert between them.

The paper table in the guide lists every size in millimetres and inches.

Where Letter pages come from

Even in A4 countries, Letter pages turn up often. Word processors set to US English often start new documents on Letter, so a resume or a letter typed on such a computer quietly becomes Letter size. Documents from American companies and universities, like offer letters and transcripts, are Letter too. And many PDFs are made by joining files from different places, so one file can mix both.

How to tell what size your PDF is

Adobe Acrobat Reader's document properties window shows the page size. Or simply put the PDF through Resize PDF on A4: if the pages are already A4, it tells you so, and if only some are, the result says how many it changed.

What happens to each page

Each page is scaled to fill the new paper as far as its shape allows, then centred on it. Nothing is cut off, and nothing is stretched out of shape. What that looks like depends on where you start:

Going the other way, A4 to Letter, works the same, with the white margins at the left and right instead.

What stays the same

• Text stays text. It is scaled, never turned into a picture, so it stays sharp, searchable and copyable.
• Links, form fields, comments and bookmarks move with the page and keep working.
• Pictures stay as they are, so the file stays about the same size.
• Hidden parts stay hidden. If a page was cropped in another app, only the part you could see before is placed on the new page.

One thing to keep in mind when a page is made bigger, as with A5 to A4: text grows and stays crisp, but a scanned page is a picture, so it is enlarged too, and a low-resolution scan can look softer on paper.

A4 to Letter, A3 to A4 and other changes

The same steps work for every size the tool offers. A few common cases, and what to expect:

• A4 to Letter, for papers someone will print in the USA or Canada, like a resume for an American employer. Letter is shorter than A4, so the page is scaled down to fit its height, and thin white margins appear at the left and right.
• A3 to A4, for drawings, charts and big tables you want to print on an office printer. A3 has twice the area of A4, so everything gets noticeably smaller. Check that the smallest labels can still be read; if not, print those pages on A3 instead.
• A5 to A4, for small booklets and forms. The page grows to fill the sheet. Typed text stays crisp at the bigger size, while scanned pages are enlarged pictures and can look softer.
• Legal to A4, for American contracts. The page is much longer than A4, so it shrinks to fit the height, with white bands at the sides. Small print gets smaller, so check it.
• A4 to A5, for a pocket-sized copy. The page halves in area and fills the smaller sheet.

Not sure which way a document needs to go? Ask the person who will print or file it. "A4" is a safe answer for India, Europe and most of the world.

Portrait and landscape pages

The Direction setting decides which way up each new sheet is:

• As it is (the default) keeps each page the way it was. Upright pages go on upright A4, and sideways pages, like wide tables and slides, go on sideways A4. This is right for almost every file.
• Portrait puts every page on an upright sheet. A wide page is not turned: it is scaled down to fit the sheet's width, leaving large white areas above and below.
• Landscape puts every page on a sideways sheet, with the same effect the other way round.

Fix sideways scans first. "As it is" goes by how a page is shown. If a page was scanned the wrong way round, it looks sideways, so it is put on a sideways sheet. Turn it upright with Rotate PDF first, then change the page size.

A wide table that must sit on an upright sheet? Rather than choosing Portrait, which shrinks the table, turn just that page a quarter turn with Rotate PDF. It then fills the upright sheet, and the reader turns the paper to read it, as in printed reports.

PDFs with mixed page sizes

A PDF can hold pages of different sizes, and joined files often do. Merge PDF keeps each page's own size, crop and rotation, so a Letter resume, A4 certificates and photographed pages can all end up in one file. On screen, the pages jump in size as you scroll; on paper, some print with odd margins.

Resize PDF gives every page the paper you pick. Pages that already have that size are left as they are, and the result line tells you how many changed, like "3 of 10 pages now A4".

For a tidy application file, work in this order:

1. Make photos into A4 pages from the start. JPG to PDF can put each photo on an A4 page with a small margin.
2. Merge all the parts in the order asked for.
3. Change the page size of the merged file to A4.
4. Make the file smaller last, if there is a size limit.

Small cards are a special case. Resize PDF always scales a page to fill the sheet, so a PDF of an ID card at its own small size becomes a card as wide as the A4 sheet. To print a card at its real size, don't convert it: print the original PDF on A4 paper at Actual size.

Printing without cut-off edges

Edges get cut off for two reasons, and it helps to know which one you are facing.

The page is bigger than the paper

Print a page at its actual size on smaller paper and the overflow is lost. An A4 page on Letter paper loses about 18 mm of height. A Letter page on A4 paper is about 6 mm too wide, so a few millimetres go at each side. Changing the PDF to match the paper fixes this for good.

The printer can't reach the edge

Most printers leave a thin border they can't print on. If a page has text or a border running very close to its edges, that part can be clipped even when the PDF matches the paper exactly. Resize PDF doesn't add a margin of its own, and a Letter page converted to A4 fills A4's full width, so anything that was close to the side edges stays close.

Which print setting to choose

Print windows usually offer two ways to size the page, with names that vary from app to app:

• Actual size (or 100%) prints the page as big as it is. Choose it once your PDF matches the paper, like an A4 PDF on A4 paper.
• Fit to page (or Fit to printable area, or Shrink oversized pages) scales the page to the paper. Choose it when the sizes differ, or when the printer cuts off the edges.

Always look at the print preview before printing many copies. The printing section of the guide explains why white margins appear after a change.

Change the file, or just print with "fit to page"?

"Fit to page" in the print window fixes one printout on one printer. Changing the PDF fixes the file itself, for everyone who opens it. Choose by what happens to the PDF next:

What about printing to a PDF? On a computer, you can also print a PDF to a new PDF with A4 paper selected, using Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows or Save as PDF on a Mac. It needs no extra tool and works for simple documents. But the copy is made the way a printout is made, so it can lose links, bookmarks and fillable form fields, which Resize PDF keeps.

When a form wants A4 and a size limit

Some forms ask for both, like "A4 pages, under 200 KB". Do the page size first and the file size second, so the size limit is checked on the file you actually upload:

1. In Resize PDF, choose Page size, pick A4 and add your PDF. Download the A4 copy.
2. Choose File size, pick the limit and add the A4 copy. Upload the file whose name ends in both, like marksheet-A4-200KB.pdf.

Changing the page size doesn't make a file smaller, because pictures stay as they are. For the second step, reducing a PDF to 100 KB covers how readable small files stay and what to do when one won't fit.

What it can't do

• Five paper sizes only: A4, Letter, Legal, A3 and A5. There is no custom size.
• The same size for every page. You can't give different pages different sizes in one go.
• No cropping or trimming. It scales pages to fit; it doesn't cut off white margins or zoom in on the content.
• No turning. It never rotates what is on a page. Use Rotate PDF for that.
• No margins or page numbers added, beyond the white space that appears when the shapes differ.
• Locked and signed files. PDFs that need a password to open can't be resized yet: remove the password in your PDF reader first. A digital signature stops being valid when the file changes, so keep the signed original.

Everything happens on your own device: the PDF is never uploaded, there is no sign-up, and nothing is added to your pages. That makes it safe for certificates, contracts and ID copies.