How to make combined pdf pages the same size.

[nfotx6708]

I have combined several pages into one pdf Binder.  Although all the pages were built on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, inside the combined pdf they are different sizes on the scree.  How can I achieve continuity between all the page sizes?

[Adorobat]

Hi nfotx6708 ,

Could you please tell what application you are using to combine pdf?

[nfotx6708]

I am using Acrobat XI, 11.0.7.

I combined several pdf files into one binder.  In the thumbnails column, the first page highlights blue around the entire page and that page is seen in full size to the right of the thumbnails column.  The second thumbnail highlights in blue around the entire page but has the black "viewing window" representing what is showing full size on the screen.

I have attached an image showing the difference between page one and two.  I would prefer to have the entire binder display pages in the same size.  All of these pages are 8.5 x 11 inches in physical form.

[Bernd Alheit]

Combining PDF files with Adobe Acrobat will not change the pages sizes.

[Geоrge · Accepted solution]

Print to Adobe PDF with "fit" (uncheck from "actual size") in print settings.

[tonyf6039100]

This worked for me, thanks

[Jen0o0o0o0o]

Best workaround ever!

I had done the pre-flight nonsense a cuple years ago, and couldn't remember the 'combination.' This is sooooo much better.

Thanks!!!

[Lisa30883511or7p]

You are doing God's work Sir!

[davidshermantax]

Worked great! Thanks very much. But the option I had to select is now called "Fill entire paper", when printing to PDF from Preview on a MacBook running OS X 12.6 Monterey.

[H. Kumar Jayasuriya]

This worked and was so helpful. I tried the preflight option first and the file was too big and Adobe crashed. The printing option was perfect. 

[Alicia_CSM]

What a relief to finally fix this so easily!  This has been an issue for me for awhile. Thank you!!

[kumarlom43931943]

Beautiful. Works like a treat.

I should have looked this up many years ago

[poullbrien]

I'm on a mac and this doesn't work. Any thoughts? 

[JR Boulay]

Read this post below : https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-make-combined-pdf-pages-the-same-size/m-p/...

[nickv19859188]

Fit, actual size, all these options in the print menu didn't change anything. This comment did however get me to think about InDesign. The thing that finally worked was extracting all the extra large pages from the PDF, one by one, and placing them in a new InDesign document, each page manually scaled and cropped to fit the 8.5 x 11 page. Then I went to the original PDF, deleted the extra large pages from the "organize pages" tools view, and "insert from file" the new PDF that came from the InDesign document. Maybe this thread has another answer solution that I missed, but this was I was wasting so much time looking for it that it was faster to just force it with InDesign. PDF viewer should be able to just streamline this and force all the extra large pages down to the same size as the others. 

[nickv19859188]

Bleed settings from the InDesign PDF have to be off or "0"

[Luke_Jennings]

Do any of the pages have crop marks and/or bleed? The trim size for all of the pages might be 8.5x11, but the pages with crop marks will have a larger media box, and look larger on screen. In Acrobat, you can go to Tools> Print Production> Preflight> (select the wrench icon for changes)> Pages> Set Crop Box to Trim Box.

You can also place all of the pages into InDesign and export to a new PDF at the desired size.

You can go to File> Document Properties> Initial View> Magnification to select a desired magnification when the PDF is opened, however it won't force different sized pages to appear to be the same size.

If you are sending your PDF to a commercial printer, be sure to include bleed on your PDF, if needed.

[Team5CD7]

Hey Luke,

thwnk you so much for this detailed answer! I have it installed on an iPad. I cannot find "tools" nor is there an option if I select print to "print Adobe PDF". Are your instructions not valid for an iPad set up?   Thank you so much!

[Test Screen Name]

Preflight is in Acrobat Pro. Only on macOS and Windows.

Adobe PDF printer is Windows only.

The facilities on iPad are very limited by comparison.

[davidk9149604]

"Print to Adobe PDF is not supported use 'save as'"

[JR Boulay]

""Print to Adobe PDF is not supported use 'save as'""

This is true for Mac computers only, since Apple locked virtual print services.
No problem with Windows.

[michaelk31462665]

Thanks!  This was the simple solution.  I had scanned a signature page and added it to an existing document.  The Scanned page was much larger than the existing document pages and the only way to make all the pages the same size was to Print to Adobe PDF and check the fit box instead of actual size box, in the print to Adobe PDF screen.  

Now, how to figure out how to scan pages in as the same size as the document I'm adding the scanned page to, that would preclude this need to print to adobe pdf again.    

Thanks for the solution, @George Salnik!  

3. Re: Making combined pdf pages the same size.

George_Salnik

Mike Kaminsky

[johnk39482450]

I don't think the following question was answered in this thread: What if I am combining PDF files of different page sizes? For example:

Doc1 (created from a Word file) + Doc2 (image scanned at high resolution) = Doc3 (now contains vastly different page sizes)

I'm using Acrobat Pro DC's combine files feature. Printer settings in Word shouldn't make a difference in the final output. I would expect the solution to be in Acrobat, but I'm just a caveman.

Thanks!

[Thom Parker]

So you would like to scale the PDF pages to the same size? or do you mean you want to just expand the page boundaries?

You can use the crop tool, or write a script to set the page boundaries. But scaling is a different issue. One way to do it is to print to PDF. The printer settings will force the pages to all be scaled to fit on to the specified paper size.

I believe my answer here is the same as the response marked as the correct answer.

[johnk39482450]

Printing to PDF instead of using the Combine feature in Acrobat has fixed the issue, and reduced the overall file size as well. Thank you!