Have you ever been in this situation? You found the cutest poster on Teachers Pay Teachers that you want to put in your classroom: it perfectly matches your color scheme, has a clever phrase on it, and is exactly what you were looking for… except for one thing. The dimensions are just a wee bit smaller than you were hoping, and it’s a PDF document!
You don’t have any PDF editing software like Adobe Acrobat, and everything you find online seems to cost money, or you just don’t feel comfortable giving your email out to some sketchy website that will do it for free. Are you doomed to be stuck with a less than perfectly sized poster on your wall? Don’t give up just yet.
All of my newer resources include basic instructions on how to shrink or expand them before you print, but none of my older ones do (That’s because I made them before I figured out how to change the print sizing). I figured I would make a quick tutorial on how to do this because it is so simple.
This tutorial is not just for classroom resources or decorations. This tutorial can be used to edit the print size of any PDF Document you want to print.
Easy Way to Shrink or Expand PDF Pages
Because most of my resources are PDF documents, it can be difficult to change the sizing of them. I spent way too much time looking for ways to edit the size of these documents because I didn’t want to spend (too much) money on it every time. So I’m here to tell you that it’s actually super easy!
This method is the easiest one I found, and did I mention it’s free? You don’t have to pay for some expensive subscription or software. This tutorial uses Adobe Reader. I originally saw this idea on Ashley McKenzie’s Website. She gives a great tutorial on how to shrink or expand classroom resources.
I was blown away by how easy it is to do! I was expecting some long, complicated process, but nope! It can be done in a matter of minutes. It may take a try or two to get your exact sizing right, but I think it’s worth it to make sure your bulletin board letters fit perfectly, or for your posters to fit neatly in a frame.
PLEASE NOTE: as you expand an image, (unless it is a vector image), the quality goes down little by little the bigger the picture gets. It becomes more pixelated and grainy. But if you only want to expand it a little bit, the difference in resolution should hardly be noticeable. Conversely, if you just don’t care about a little bit of blurriness in the end result, then by all means, make that picture as big as you want!
If you’re planning on shrinking an image, then you don’t have to worry about the above warning. Shrinking an image will not negatively affect the quality. In fact, it can even improve the image quality in some cases.
How to Shrink or Expand PDF Files for Free
Step 1:
Download the free Adobe Reader extension to your computer. If you already have it installed on your computer, make sure it is updated to the latest version before moving to the next step.
Step 2:
In Adobe Reader, open the PDF file you would like to shrink or expand.
Step 3:
Select the print button on the top-right coroner of the screen.
Step 4:
Once the “Print Dialogue Box” is open, select the poster option under “Page Sizing and Handling.”
Step 5:
Enter the percentage you would like to increase or decrease the design to. A preview of the design will appear on the right-hand side of the dialogue box. This is how your design will print. It will be tiled on different pages to make it easy to put together after printing.
I like to overlap the pages by 0.005 in just to give me a little bit of extra space to attach the pieces together.
Step 6:
Once everything is to your liking, select the print button at the bottom-right of the dialogue box. Repeat these steps for each additional page you would like to shrink or expand.
Note: You might want to print a couple test pages to make sure the image is the size you need. If it is not quite right, repeat these steps adjusting the percentage until you get it exactly how you want it.
I hope this helps!
