PDF Resize Guide: Best Tools to Change PDF Dimensions

PDF Resize: How to Shrink or Expand PDFs QuicklyPDF files are everywhere — reports, invoices, ebooks, flyers, forms. Sometimes the PDF you need is too large to email, prints at the wrong paper size, or contains pages with dimensions that don’t match your project. Resizing a PDF can mean two different things: changing the page dimensions (for printing, display, or layout) or reducing the file size (to make sharing and storage easier). This article explains both tasks, shows quick methods for each, compares popular tools, and gives practical tips to preserve quality.

What “resize” can mean for a PDF

• Change page dimensions — Alter the width and height of pages (e.g., convert A4 to Letter, scale to fit a poster, or change orientation).
• Reduce (or increase) file size — Compress images, remove embedded fonts, or optimize content to decrease bytes; sometimes you may intentionally expand file size by embedding higher-resolution images or converting to PDF/A for archival.

Quick overview: which method to use

• If you need to adjust print or layout dimensions: change page size or scale content.
• If you need to send or upload a smaller file: compress and optimize the PDF.
• If you need to process many files: use batch tools or command-line utilities.

How to change page dimensions (shrink or expand pages)

Option 1 — Using Adobe Acrobat (Pro)

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat Pro.
2. Go to Tools → Print Production → Set Page Boxes.
3. Choose a preset (CropBox, BleedBox, TrimBox) or set custom width/height.
4. Use “Apply to” to target specific pages or all pages.
5. If you need to scale content to the new size, use Print → Page Setup or use Preflight’s fixups to scale pages.

Pros: Precise control, preserves content placement.