How to Turn a PDF into an Image (JPG or PNG)
Sometimes a PDF is just awkward: you want a page to show up directly in a WhatsApp chat, post an invitation to a story, or drop a page of a document into a presentation. The answer is to turn the PDF's pages into images. Here's how, and how to pick the format and quality.
How to turn a PDF into an image
- Open PDF to JPG and choose the file.
- Pick a format, JPG or PNG (explained below), and a quality.
- Each page of the PDF becomes a separate image; download the ones you need.
JPG or PNG?
- JPG suits most cases: small files that send quickly on WhatsApp and by email, good for pages with photos, invitations and flyers.
- PNG keeps text, lines and tables sharper, without "noise" around the letters. Use it for forms, charts, pages with small text, and slides. Files are larger.
Which quality
- Standard (screen): enough for viewing on a phone and quick sending.
- High (recommended): stays sharp when you zoom in, and is the right choice almost every time.
- Print quality: for images that will be printed or used in a design. Files are heavy, so not for WhatsApp.
Tips by use
When you send an image as a "photo", WhatsApp compresses it and small text can blur. If the text must stay readable, as on an invoice or a form, send the PDF itself or send the image as a "document". For a designed page or an invitation, a high-quality JPG sent as a photo looks great.
Instagram and social media
An A4 page is portrait, so it gets cropped in the feed. It fits a story better. If you need a square, crop the image after converting in your phone's photo editor.
Presentations and Word documents
High-quality PNG looks best on a big screen. If you want the whole PDF as a presentation, there's a more direct route: PDF to PowerPoint turns every page into a slide. See also how to present a PDF as slides.
Just one page of a long document
The conversion makes an image for every page, and you simply download the one you need. For a file with dozens of pages it is quicker to take the page out first with Split PDF and convert only that. There's a guide for this: how to extract one page from a PDF.
The other way round
Need to turn photos back into one PDF? That's what JPG to PDF is for.