How to use it
- Choose the image format under Save as: JPG or PNG.
- Pick a Resolution. Standard (150 DPI) is selected to start with.
- To convert only some pages, type them in the Pages box, such as 1-3, 5. Leave it empty for every page.
- Press Choose files or drop one or more PDFs. Each page appears with a preview, its pixel size and file size, ready to Download on its own or with the others as a ZIP.
- Changed a setting after converting? Press Apply to all again.
Which resolution to choose
DPI means dots per inch: how many pixels each inch of the page becomes. PDF pages are measured in points, 72 to the inch, so the size of each image is plain arithmetic: page width in inches × DPI. A4 is 210 × 297 mm, about 8.27 × 11.69 inches; US Letter is 8.5 × 11 inches.
| Page | Screen (72 DPI) | Standard (150 DPI) | Print (300 DPI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4 | 595 × 842 | 1240 × 1754 | 2480 × 3508 |
| US Letter | 612 × 792 | 1275 × 1650 | 2550 × 3300 |
The results list shows the exact size of every image. It can be one pixel smaller than the table, because part-pixels at the edge are dropped.
Screen is enough for a quick preview or a chat message. Standard is sharp on phones and laptops and suits most upload forms. Print doubles Standard in each direction, so each image has four times the pixels and a much bigger file; use it for printing the page at its real size or for zooming into small print.
JPG or PNG?
JPG is lossy: it saves space by throwing away detail the eye notices least. That suits photos, but around sharp edges such as small text it can leave faint smudges. PNG is lossless, so text, lines and charts come out exactly as drawn, while pages full of photos make large PNG files. MDN's image format guide recommends lossless formats for screenshots, diagrams and line art for this reason.
A simple rule: pages of text, tables or charts look crisper as PNG; brochure pages and scanned photos are much smaller as JPG. JPG images are saved here at quality 90 out of 100. Pages are drawn on white, just like paper, so neither format has a transparent background.
Choosing pages, and how files are named
The Pages box takes the same format as the other PDF tools here: 5 for one page, 1-3 for a run, 8- for page 8 to the end and -4 for the start up to page 4. A page typed twice is converted once. If the box can't be read, every page is converted.
Images are named after the PDF and the page number, with zeros added so they sort in the right order. A 120-page manual.pdf gives manual-page-001.jpg up to manual-page-120.jpg. You can drop several PDFs together; their pages are listed one file after another.
Very large pages
Posters, plans and maps can be huge at 300 DPI. An A1 sheet is 594 × 841 mm, which at Print would be about 7016 × 9933 pixels: almost 70 million pixels in one image. To keep phones and tablets responsive, very large pages are drawn a little smaller so the browser doesn't run out of memory. The size shown in the results is always the true size of the saved image.
Images are pictures of the page
Text in the images can't be selected or searched, and links in the PDF don't work in a picture. If you need the words, copy them from the PDF itself.
For a form that accepts only image uploads, Standard JPG is usually a good start. Check the form's size limit; if an image is too big, make it smaller with the image compressor. To go the other way and turn pictures into a PDF, use JPG to PDF.
Questions
- Is my PDF uploaded to be converted?
- No. The pages are drawn by PDF.js, Mozilla's open-source PDF reader, running in your browser tab, and the images are saved straight to your device. Scripts inside the PDF are switched off, so a PDF can't run code. How the privacy works.
- Why is the JPG bigger than the PDF?
- A PDF stores text as letters plus font outlines, which take very little space. An image has to store every pixel, so a page that is mostly text gets much bigger as a picture. Use a lower resolution or JPG to keep files small.
- Which setting should I use for printing?
- Print (300 DPI) gives every inch of the page 300 pixels, the most detailed setting here. Use it when you print the page at its original size.
- Can I convert a password-protected PDF?
- No. The tool will say the file is password-protected. Remove the password in the app that made it, then try again.
- Can I convert only one page?
- Yes. Type its number in the Pages box, for example
4, before you add the PDF. If you've already converted it, change the box and press Apply to all again.