Changing a Letter-size PDF to A4 without losing the edges
A form from the United States arrives on Letter paper and your printer, or the office you are sending it to, expects A4; or it is the other way round. A document assembled from scans and downloads can have pages of several sizes at once. Changing the page size here means scaling every page to the paper you choose, so all of it stays on the sheet.
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Which tool you need
A US Letter document for an A4 printer or an A4 form
PDF to A4, with A4 chosen. Each page is shrunk slightly to fit the narrower sheet and centered on it.
An A4 document for someone printing on US Letter
The same tool with US Letter chosen. The page shrinks a little more, because A4 is the taller of the two.
A form asks for a smaller file, such as under 1 MB
That is the file's size, not the paper's, and Resize PDF is the tool for it.
Wide white margins you would rather cut away than scale
Crop PDF trims the edges off a page instead of changing its size.
Two or more pages wanted on each sheet of A4
Multiple Pages per Sheet lays several pages out on one sheet.
Scaled to fit, never cut
Letter is 216 by 279 mm and A4 is 210 by 297 mm, so neither fits the other exactly. A Letter page placed on A4 is scaled down by about 3 percent to fit the width, which leaves a white band of roughly 13 mm above and below it. An A4 page placed on Letter is scaled down by about 6 percent to fit the height, with a band of about 9 mm at each side.
Pages smaller than the paper are scaled up to fill it, the same way. In every case the page keeps its shape and nothing at its edges is trimmed.
Mixed sizes and wide pages
On Automatic, each page keeps its own orientation, so a wide table or a landscape chart gets a landscape sheet rather than being shrunk onto a tall one. Choosing portrait or landscape instead turns every sheet the same way.
Margins start at none. A printer that cannot print to the very edge is helped by the small or medium margin, which shrinks each page a little further so nothing falls in the strip the printer leaves blank.
What the resized pages keep
The content of each page is redrawn at the new size rather than turned into a picture, so text can still be selected and searched and photos lose nothing. The document's title, author and other properties carry over too.
Comments, stamps, signatures and filled-in form fields are drawn on as they look, no longer editable. Links stop working and bookmarks stop pointing at pages; the result counts the links and comments left behind.
What to know before you start
- A4 and US Letter are the only paper sizes offered.
- A page whose size changes no longer prints at its original measurements, which matters for a scale drawing.
- Comments and filled-in fields are drawn on and no longer editable; links stop working.
- A password-protected PDF has to be opened with Unlock PDF before it can be resized.