What is a CropBox?

A PDF describes the content and appearance of one or more pages and also defines the physical size of those pages. There can be up to five different definitions in a PDF related to page size: MediaBox, CropBox, BleedBox, TrimBox and ArtBox. These are called the page boxes or boundary boxes. PDF boxes describe the page geometry of a PDF. They are used frequently in the printing industry.

The CropBox

The PDF CropBox defines the area to which the visible or printed page content is cropped. The content in this box is shown on screen and when printing. By default, the CropBox is the same as the page's MediaBox. Both CropBox and MediaBox are important for scripting and managing page geometry. For pre-press use, however, the CropBox is not very important.

The MediaBox represents what the user would see when printing the PDF page, while the CropBox is what the user sees on the screen. The CropBox is usually the same size as the MediaBox, but it can also be smaller.

Find out more about the other PDF boxes in the following article.