Add PDF Margins

Many PDFs are designed for screens, with text running close to the edge. That’s fine until you print, punch holes, bind, or need space for handwritten comments. This tool adds space around every page in one of two ways, and the right one depends on whether your paper size must stay the same.

Two ways to add margins

Make pages bigger. The page grows by the margin you set and the content stays exactly the same size. A 10 mm margin on an A4 page makes it 230 × 317 mm. Use this for screen copies with room for comments, for print shops that print on larger sheets and trim, or for documents that will be scaled at print time anyway.

Keep page size, shrink content. The page stays A4 (or Letter), and the content is reduced just enough to fit inside the new margins. A 15 mm margin on all sides of an A4 page reduces the content to about 86%, because the width is the limiting side. Use this whenever the result must print on standard paper, which covers most home and office printing.

Settings for common jobs

• Hole punch or ring binder: shrink the content and add a binding gutter of 15–20 mm, mirrored for double-sided printing.
• Comb or wire binding: 12–15 mm gutter.
• Teacher’s marking space on essays: shrink the content with a 25–30 mm margin on the right side only.
• Printer cuts off the edges: shrink the content with 5–8 mm on all sides.
• Space for a stamp or a sticker: a larger top margin, for example 30 mm.

Switch off Same on all sides to set each side separately, and change the unit to inches if you think in US paper terms.

The binding gutter explained

When pages are printed on both sides and bound, the inner edge of the paper is on the left of the front and on the right of the back. A gutter that always sat on the left would be on the wrong side of every back page. With Mirror the gutter on even pages on, the extra space alternates, so it is always next to the spine. For single-sided printing, turn mirroring off.

Colored margins

The new space is white unless you pick a color. A dark fill suits slide decks with dark backgrounds, where a white frame would look odd on screen. White adds nothing to the file and prints no ink.

For print shops: the trim box

When you enlarge pages, you can mark the original page area as the trim box. Print shop software reads it to know where the finished page edge is. Note that a real print bleed also needs the background artwork to extend beyond that edge; added margins are plain space, so photos and colored backgrounds that should run off the page must be designed with bleed in the original file.

What changes in the file

Pages are rebuilt on new pages, with the original content placed as sharp vector graphics. Text stays selectable. Links, the bookmark sidebar and fillable fields are not carried over.

Related tools

To remove white space instead, use Crop PDF. To convert pages to a standard paper size, use Change PDF Page Size. To print a folded booklet with space at the fold, see PDF Booklet Maker, and to add page numbers in the new margins, Add Page Numbers.