Crop a Detail from a PDF Drawing
Drag a box around a detail on a PDF drawing and save just that area as a vector PDF at the drawing's own scale, or as a PNG or JPEG picture.
Tool workspace
Nothing is uploaded. Files are read in this tab and stay on your machine.
Crop a detail from one drawing page
Save your download before you leave the page — it exists only in this tab.
How do I crop a detail out of a PDF drawing?
Drop one PDF drawing onto the tool, or choose one. Its first page is shown; enter another page number and select Show page to use a different sheet.
Drag a box around the detail on the page. The size on the sheet is shown as you drag, and you can type the edges in millimetres instead.
Choose PDF, PNG or JPEG, and a resolution for a picture, then select Save detail and download the file before leaving the page.
How is the detail kept sharp and at scale?
Crop a detail out of a PDF drawing: drag a box around the part you need and save just that area, as a vector PDF at the drawing's own scale or as a PNG or JPEG picture for a report, an RFI or an email.
As a PDF, the page is copied whole and its page boxes are set to the area you marked, so every line stays vector, text stays text and the detail prints at the same scale as the sheet it came from. The content itself is not rewritten, which means the rest of the sheet is still inside the file, hidden outside the detail, and the tool says so. As a PNG or JPEG, only the marked area is drawn, at 150, 300 or 600 dots per inch, so nothing else travels with it. A very large area is drawn at the highest resolution that stays within 50 million pixels, and the result says which. Once a detail is in hand, Xenmark lets a reviewer pin a comment to the same spot on the full drawing.
How Xenmark makes it easy to crop a detail out of a PDF drawing
Drag a box, save the detail
Mark the area on the page and save it. The size on the sheet is shown as you drag, and the edges can be typed in millimetres.
Nothing leaves your machine
Nothing is uploaded. Files are read in this tab and processed in memory, with no account and no server for them to go to.
A PDF detail keeps the scale
The page is cropped, not redrawn, so lines stay vector, text stays text, and the detail prints at the same scale as the sheet it came from.
Or a PNG or JPEG picture
Draw just the detail at 150, 300 or 600 dpi for a report, a presentation or an email. A picture contains only the area you marked.
Told what the file contains
A PDF detail still holds the rest of the sheet, hidden, and the result says so plainly, so you can choose a picture when only the detail should be shared.
Nothing to install
It runs in the browser you already have. There is no plug-in, no desktop application and no sign-up to get through first.
Limitations
What this tool does not do, stated up front.
A PDF detail still contains the rest of the sheet, hidden outside the crop, so anyone with a PDF editor can show it again. Save a PNG or JPEG to send only the detail.
Pictures are drawn by the page renderer built into this page, which may leave out content it does not support, and a PNG or JPEG does not carry the drawing's scale.
One page and one area at a time. Password-protected PDFs cannot be opened, an encrypted PDF can only be saved as a picture, and each PDF may be up to 150 MiB and 200 pages.
Questions
Will the detail be sharp when I zoom in or print it?
As a PDF, yes: the lines stay vector, so the detail is as sharp as the original at any zoom and prints at the drawing's own scale. As a PNG or JPEG it is as sharp as the resolution you choose; 300 dpi suits print and 600 dpi fine linework.
Does the PDF contain only the detail?
No. The page is cropped rather than redrawn, so the rest of the sheet is still in the file, hidden. That keeps the detail exact and vector, but if the rest of the drawing must not be shared, save the detail as a PNG or JPEG, which contains only the area you marked.
Which format should I choose?
PDF for printing or for anyone who will measure from the detail, because it keeps the scale. PNG for a sharp picture in a document or an email. JPEG when a smaller file matters more than crisp lines.
Why did Xenmark build a free tool to crop PDF drawings?
Xenmark AS is a Norwegian software company building browser-based drawing review tools for owners, consultants, operators and other teams that receive and review technical drawings. Those teams handle PDFs every day, and not every file should be sent to a website just to merge, split or check it — a tender document, a client’s drawing set, a revision that is not released yet. So these everyday tools are free and run entirely in your browser: no account, no upload step, and no server ever receives the file. You can check that yourself — open your browser’s network tab, crop a drawing detail, and watch nothing leave. What this tool cannot do is listed under Limitations above.
Related tools
All 44 other tools
Build and edit PDFs
Convert
Drawing and measurement
Inspect and check
Registers and logs
Markup and revisions
Specialist and reference
Beyond the free tools
Reviewing the drawings, not just handling the files?
Xenmark is affordable PDF markup and structured drawing review in the browser. Invite reviewers, pin numbered comments on the sheet, track every one by author and status, and export a clean PDF and Excel when the review is done. Unlike these tools, a review is shared, so its drawings are uploaded to your Xenmark project.
Free forever plan. Reviewers you invite never pay.