How do you change page size of a PDF form from Legal to Letter

[Jason Burnett]

Honestly, I feel crazy that I have to ask this question. I received a PDF document that is not a PDF form but needs to be. The document was accidentally created as Legal size (8.5x14) though it only takes up 8.5x11" (letter). This is a government supplied form and the biggest complaint they get every day is that it can't print or prints too small.

I have edited the document in Acrobat to add the form fields and now I simply need to change the page to letter size. So far, I have been unable to find anywhere in Acrobat that you can do this. Every webpage I have looked at skips around the issue and suggests printing at a smaller percentage, fitting the print to page, etc. I want to change the document size. Period. 

Surely, there is a way to change the document size in Acrobat. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bernd Alheit]

You can use the preflight tool of Acrobat DC Pro.

[try67]

Actually, this is not such a simple task at all, as PDF files were not meant to be edited in this way. You can scale the pages using the Preflight tool, as suggested above, but you'll probably have to re-do all the fields, as their sizes will no longer match the dimensions of the new file.

The solution really needs to be implemented before the file is converted to PDF. Change the original file and then convert it to a new PDF and re-create the fields.

[louisb15214761]

Hi, I hope that we are talking about the same thing. Myself the problem is not about changeing the document from Legal size to Letter size but I do need to print in Letter size because I don't have any Legal paper for my Printer. So I need to Print only in Letter size. 

It's so simple your going to kick youself in the head. Just don't use the Acrobate program that you paid so much money for. Download the free Acrobate Reader and then you can print the Legal page in Letter page. Ha Ha.  Thank You Adobe for such an Fun Time.

[Guest]

I have the same issue.   Weekly, I receive a document in pdf which, if printed as is, comes out in font 33 and is about 20 pages !!!    I have Adobe Reader but it isn't the fix.   Obviously, as I change font to 12 I must reformat...which is usually just deleting blank lines and spaces.    The only option that works with Adobe Reader is to convert it to html format, and then to Word for the real editing.  I do that, save it, and go to Print and it is always on 'legal' size paper according to the view.   and Yes...I have gone back and re re-set all I can find to a 'letter' size.    Nothing.

This should not be complicated but it is because Adobe wants to sell us the subscriptions to the sites that DO work.

[JR Boulay]

Do you need to scale or do you need to crop pages?

(Answer will not be the same)

[Suzanne30188016fhz3]

I don't know if this will help with every issue like this, but I keep coming across pdf's trying to pring on legal paper.  By accident, I unchecked "Choose paper source by PDF page size" and voila, it printed as 8 1/2 by 11!  Worked for me, hopefully will work for you.

[Guest]

Interesting!  Where did you find this option?...please be specific.....thanks

[WesWoot]

[Jamie38948579uqvy]

Soooo helpful!  Thank you

[Shefa Life]

Very Helpful. Thank you for this solution. 

[WesWoot]

This was irritating, why is this not an option? 

A couple of options:
Quick, Dirty & BASIC (does not work for forms);
Make sure all text is centered in the top 8½x11 area

Print to Adobe PDF…Manually select Orientation (not Auto) and Actual for Page Size…In Page Setup,  change Print Size to Letter
Print and save.

{This just gives you a basic PDF that is Letter size}

---------------------------------------------
To actually Crop Pages (this is not intuitive):

Make sure all pages are lined up and all text is within your top 8½x11 space

Go to the Organize Pages tools

Select More…Set Page Boxes

In the Page Boxes action window;

Uncheck Constrain Proportions and Remove White Margins
Adjust the CropBox measurements around the widest amount of text on the page (Make sure your Cropped page size is = or LESS than 8½x11)
Set Page Range to ALL

Hit OK

Save As a different file and see if it works for your needs.

{This does NOT change scanned images or content.  This does not actually crop the images. This does not change the original document size.  But it should give you a Letter size PDF to print.}