PDF to JPG

How to use the PDF to JPG

1. 1

   Drop a PDF into the box or click to choose one. If it asks for a password, type the password you use to open it.

2. 2

   Tap page thumbnails to select or skip them, or type a range such as 1-3, 5 and press Apply. Select all and None are at the top.

3. 3

   Choose JPG or PNG, set the JPG quality, and pick 72, 150 or 300 DPI. The line under the resolution shows the exact pixel size of the first selected page.

4. 4

   Press Convert. One page downloads straight away; for several pages, use Download all or save each image from the list.

How the conversion happens on your device

When you open a PDF here, it is read by pdf.js, the same open-source PDF engine that Firefox uses to display PDFs. It runs as JavaScript inside this browser tab. Each page you select is drawn onto an invisible canvas at the resolution you chose, then the canvas is saved as a JPG or PNG file. The document is never sent to a server, which matters for contracts, bank statements and medical letters.

Thumbnails are drawn in the background, a few at a time, and only for pages that have scrolled into view. A 300-page report stays responsive, and you can select pages before every thumbnail exists. Memory used for previews and finished images is released when you choose another file or leave the page.

File names follow the page number, so page 3 of quarterly-report.pdf becomes quarterly-report-page-3.jpg. The images sort in the right order in any folder.

Choosing a resolution: 72, 150 or 300 DPI

PDF pages are measured in points, and there are 72 points in an inch. The DPI setting decides how many pixels each inch of the page gets, so the output size is simply the page size in inches multiplied by the DPI. The table shows what that means for the two most common paper sizes: A4, used in most of the world, and US Letter, used in the United States, Canada and parts of Latin America.

150 DPI is the default because text stays crisp on a laptop or phone screen while files stay a manageable size. Choose 300 DPI if the image will be printed or if the page has fine print, maps or technical drawings you need to zoom into. Doubling the DPI quadruples the pixel count.

Very large pages, such as A3 posters or engineering sheets at 300 DPI, are limited to about 16 megapixels. Phone browsers in particular refuse to create bigger canvases, and a failed canvas would give you a blank image. When a page hits the limit, the tool tells you and shows the effective DPI it will use instead, for example about 288 DPI for an A3 page.

JPG or PNG for PDF pages

JPG compresses by smoothing away detail the eye is unlikely to notice. That suits photos, brochures and colorful slides, and the files are small. On pages of plain black text, JPG can leave faint speckles around the letters, especially at lower quality settings. Keeping the quality slider at 85 to 95 percent avoids most of that. JPG pages always get a solid white background.

PNG is lossless, so text, thin lines, tables and diagrams stay perfectly sharp. A text-heavy page often comes out at a reasonable size as PNG because large areas of flat white compress very well, while a page full of photos can be several times larger as PNG than as JPG. A practical rule: PNG for invoices, forms and spreadsheets; JPG for photo-rich pages and chat apps.

Scanned PDFs versus digital PDFs

A digital PDF, exported from Word, Google Docs, a spreadsheet or design software, stores text and shapes as instructions. pdf.js redraws them at whatever resolution you ask for, so 300 DPI really does give sharper letters than 150 DPI.

A scanned PDF is different. Each page is already a picture, captured at the scanner's resolution, often 200 or 300 DPI. Converting it at a higher DPI than the scan only enlarges the existing pixels; it can't recover detail that was never captured. If your scan looks soft, 150 DPI usually gives the same visible quality as 300 DPI at a fraction of the file size. Phone scanning apps produce this kind of PDF.

Everyday uses for PDF pages as images

• Posting slides on social media: export a deck to PDF, convert the pages you want, and upload them as an Instagram or LinkedIn carousel.
• Putting one page into a presentation: PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides accept images far more happily than PDF pages.
• Sharing a single page in a chat app: a train timetable, a menu or one page of a lease is easier to read as an image in WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat or LINE than as a PDF attachment.
• Uploading to forms that only accept images, such as some job portals and university applications that want a certificate as a JPG.

Limits worth knowing

Everything runs in your browser's memory. A long PDF converts fine page by page, but a phone with little free memory may slow down with hundreds of pages at 300 DPI. Converting in batches or at 150 DPI helps. You can press Stop at any point and keep the images already made.

PDFs that need a password to open will ask for it, and the password stays on your device. PDFs that only restrict printing or copying open without a prompt. If a PDF uses fonts that were not embedded in the file, pdf.js substitutes a similar font, so letter shapes may differ slightly from the original. If your browser asks whether the site may download several files, choose Allow.