What Resize PDF Pages does
This tool changes the page size of a PDF to a standard paper size — A3, A4, A5, US Letter or Legal — scaling each page's content to fit and centring it. It solves the everyday mismatch between US and international paper: a Letter document that prints with a cut-off bottom on A4, or an A4 form that a US printer shrinks and mis-centres. The content is placed as a vector form, so text stays sharp and selectable. The conversion runs in your browser.
Paper sizes
| Size | Millimetres | Inches | Points | Where used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A3 | 297 × 420 | 11.69 × 16.54 | 842 × 1191 | Drawings, posters, spreadsheets — international |
| A4 | 210 × 297 | 8.27 × 11.69 | 595 × 842 | Standard office paper everywhere except North America |
| A5 | 148 × 210 | 5.83 × 8.27 | 420 × 595 | Booklets, notebooks, flyers |
| Letter | 216 × 279 | 8.5 × 11 | 612 × 792 | Standard office paper in the US, Canada, Mexico, Philippines |
| Legal | 216 × 356 | 8.5 × 14 | 612 × 1008 | US legal documents and contracts |
A4 is slightly narrower and taller than Letter (6 mm narrower, 18 mm taller). Content designed for one printed on the other without scaling loses a strip at the bottom (Letter on A4 is fine; A4 on Letter clips) or has uneven margins.
How the content is scaled
scale = min(target width ÷ page width, target height ÷ page height)
offset = (target − page × scale) ÷ 2 (centred)
Letter → A4: scale = min(595/612, 842/792) = 0.972 → content 2.8% smaller, centred
A4 → Letter: scale = min(612/595, 792/842) = 0.941 → content 5.9% smaller, centredScaling is uniform — the aspect ratio never changes — so nothing is stretched. Going between A4 and Letter costs 3–6% in size, which is invisible in practice. Going from A3 to A5 halves the content twice and makes 10 pt text about 5 pt, so choose sizes with legibility in mind.
Common uses
- International documents — converting Letter files from US colleagues to A4 before printing, and the reverse.
- Mixed-size merges — a document assembled from A4 and Letter parts that should print uniformly.
- Booklets and handouts — reducing A4 to A5 for a compact print.
- Drawings and spreadsheets — enlarging A4 to A3 for review on paper.
- Print services — meeting a print shop's requirement for a single, standard page size.
- Odd sizes — normalising PDFs exported at screen sizes or custom dimensions.
What changes and what does not
- Every page becomes the chosen size, in the orientation of the original page (portrait stays portrait).
- Text, images and vectors are scaled together; images keep their pixel data and display at the new size.
- Annotations, form fields and links are not carried into the resized file — the page content is embedded as a form. Flatten forms before resizing if their appearance matters.
- Bookmarks and metadata are not preserved.
- File size is roughly unchanged.