How to convert a PDF to JPG images
Sometimes a PDF has to become a picture: a page for a presentation, a flyer for social media, a single slide to drop into a chat. Converting is quick, but the result depends on two choices most tools hide from you — the resolution and the format. This guide explains both.
Updated September 15, 20265 min read
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How to convert PDF pages to JPG, step by step
Thumbnails of every page appear first, so you can see what you are converting before you choose anything.
- Open PDF to JPG and add the PDF.
- Select the pages you need by clicking thumbnails, shift-clicking a run, or typing ranges such as 2-5, 9.
- Choose a resolution preset.
- Run the tool. One page downloads as one JPG; several pages arrive together in a ZIP file.
Only the pages you select are rendered, so picking just what you need also makes the job faster on a long document.
Which resolution to pick
Pages are rendered at the resolution you choose, not upscaled from a small preview. Each step up roughly doubles the file size, so pick the lowest setting that still looks right for where the image is going.
- Screen (72 dpi) for email and chat.
- Good (144 dpi) for reading on a laptop.
- High (216 dpi) for zooming into detail.
- Print (288 dpi) for anything that goes on paper.
JPG or PNG?
JPG produces far smaller files for photographic pages and scans, which is what most PDFs contain. For pages made of text, diagrams, screenshots or line art, PNG is the better format: it is lossless, keeps edges crisp and avoids the fuzzy halos JPG can leave around letters. PDF to PNG renders pages at the resolution you pick in the same way, and can also give you a transparent background.
When you want the photos, not the pages
Converting a page to JPG captures everything on it, including text and margins. If what you actually need are the photos embedded in the document, Extract Images pulls them out at their original resolution instead of taking a picture of the page.