How to convert a PDF to JPG

Step by step

1. Add your PDF

   Drop the file on the tool. It is read and rendered in your browser, so even a confidential document never leaves your machine.

2. Choose the resolution

   150 dpi for screens and email, 300 dpi if the image will be printed or cropped, 96 dpi when the file has to be small above all.

3. Convert and download

   Every page becomes a JPG, numbered in page order, and they arrive together in a ZIP archive.

4. Check the smallest text

   Open one image and look at the finest print. If it is fuzzy, convert again one step higher — it is faster than discovering it after you have sent them.

Resolution is a trade, not a setting

Doubling the dpi roughly quadruples the file size. At 150 dpi an A4 page is readable on any screen and small enough to email; at 300 dpi it prints cleanly and weighs several times as much.

Choose by destination rather than by instinct. Screens and messaging apps never need 300 dpi, and print never survives 96.

What you lose by turning a page into a picture

A JPG has no text in it, only pixels shaped like text. Nothing in the image can be searched, selected, copied or read aloud, and no screen reader will get anything from it.

That is sometimes the point — an image is harder to edit casually — but it is a real loss. If the recipient needs to read or quote the content, send the PDF.

JPG or PNG

JPG compresses photographs well and pages of text less well: the compression puts faint halos around sharp letter edges, which shows most at low resolutions.

For a page that is mostly text, diagrams or screenshots, PNG is the better format and the file is often smaller too. For scans of photographs, JPG is the right choice.