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.

[WesWoot · Accepted solution]

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.}

[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. 

[daryl_7810]

fantastic!  this seems to be working for me.  Thanks.

[WesWoot · Accepted solution]

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.}

[frederick_5329]

Yes, this works to change the page size, but it strips out all hot links and removes the bookmarks.

I have a book with text margins that fit in both 8.5 x 11 and A4. The document (pdf) is currently set to 8.5 x 11. I need to change it to A4 (with no scaling). Just put the existing text onto an A4 page - with NO changes. All it should do is put a different amount of white space around the text - everything else stays the same.  I can do that with PRINT to PDF (which lets me set the page size), but doing that strips out all the hot links and removes the bookmarks. I get my A4, but it's impossible to use because you can't navigate through the document. How do I keep the hot links and the bookmarks but change the page size.  FWIW - I have Acrobat Pro in case it makes any difference.

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

You can use the preflight tool of Acrobat DC Pro.

[Randy CorpGraphics]

Ah yes!!! This worked perfectly.

[AnandSri]

Hello @Randy CorpGraphics

I hope you are doing well, and we are glad to know that the suggestion from our community product expert has worked for you. For future reference, you can refer to this article to learn more about Acrobat Preflight tool: https://adobe.ly/46oLjhj

Please feel free to reach out if you need any assistance.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[Captivating_child8222]

To change the page size in Acrobat, go to "Print Production" > "Set Page Boxes," where you can adjust the page size from Legal to Letter without resizing the content.

[frederick_5329]

Yup, I found that, and legal to letter works (anything "smaller" works). However, I cannot go from letter to A4. The A4 option is grayed out. I assume because A4 is narrower, but longer.  I create the document (in Framemaker) with a text window that fits in the margins for BOTH Letter and A4 (it leaves a little extra white space on the side of the letter format, and some extra white space on the bottom of the A4 format.  Then, I fill 160+ pages of text. I create the PDF at letter size. Now, someone in Europe wants the document in A4 format. So, I want to just change the paper size of the original PDF file. That way, all the page numbers stay the same so it's easy to share references and talk about the content.

The only way I can do this is with the PRINT option - but that strips out all the hot links and the Bookmarks.