Enlarge page margins on many PDF files (overlaying PDF's)

[David.P]

Hi forum & Tracker PDF team,

I need to enlarge the white margins of (many) PDF files about a certain percentage (or fixed mm value).

Alternatively, the page contents could simply be scaled down to like 95% of their original size (in this case while keeping the original page size).

Why this?

I need to overlay (many pairs of) PDF documents, however before overlaying, the overlaying PDF must be scaled down (because it is too large).

Thus, if there is a way to scale a first PDF and then overlay this onto a second PDF (possibly with PDF Tools?) I'd be more than happy about a respective hint.

Thanks already for help
Regards David.P

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David,

In the PDF Tools - at the step when you select the file to use as overlay - there is an option:
"Fit Overlay Pages to newly created document pages" - is this option the one you are looking for?

If not - can you please provide an example - with a couple of actual files - and specify what are the final dimensions for both files (and the overlaid result) you want to achieve.

Best,
Stefan

[David.P]

Thanks Stefan -- yes, I have tried that function.

I have two PDF files that I need to overlay on top of each other, where the to-be-overlayed pages need to be scaled down to about 95% before overlaying.

However, the two files are already of the same page size, therefore said PDF Tools overlay function won't make the size reduction possible.

Thus, I'd need to either increase the page size, or reduce the page's content size accordingly, in the file that is to be overlayed.

OK I could print that file to PDF with 95% -- however I need to do this on many files, thus I'd rather have something simpler than the extra printing step.

Regards David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David,

At first I was also thinking of this option only, but here is what else came to my mind.
Merge all overlays in a single PDF document, then crop all pages using our Viewer (there is a bug with the crop tool in the PDF Tools). Then Simply split this multi page document back to single page files (this is an option in the Split/Merge in the Tools).

Or if you think it will be faster - you can also merge all "to-be-overlaid" files - and then perform a single overlay - and only after that split this to individual files.

Best,
Stefan

[David.P]

Yes, that could be a way -- however I'd need to "de-crop" the pages that are to be overlayed (e.g. with negative crop values) because their content has to be shrinked (relative to the page), not enlarged (as with cropping).

Possibly I could do this by printing (because the Viewer does not seem to support negative cropping nor enlarging of the page).

Regards David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David,

Yes - negative cropping is not possible, but I thought that either of increasng the size of the to-be-overlaid pages or decreasing the size of the overlays (and then scaling them to match the to-be-overlaid pages) is acceptable solution.

You could indeed try to reprint to a larger sheet size, and then crop this result to match the overlay's size (effectively zooming in the to-be-overlaid pages).

Best,
Stefan

[David.P]

Yup -- thanks Stefan. I think I'll go for the re-print-resize (all files in one piece).

Cheers David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]