PDF pages to images, or extracting the images inside?
Checked against our tools on 10 October 2026
Converting a PDF to JPG takes a picture of each whole page at the resolution you choose, including text and layout. Extracting images pulls out the photos stored inside the PDF at their original resolution, without the page around them. Our PDF to JPG tool does the first. For a scanned document the two give nearly the same result; for a brochure full of photos they don't.
Go straight to the tool: PDF to JPG or PNG
Rendering a page
PDF to JPG draws each page the way a PDF reader shows it, then saves that drawing as an image. You get one image per page, with everything on it: text, photos, lines and backgrounds. The size depends only on the page size and the resolution you choose:
| Resolution | A4 page | US Letter page |
|---|---|---|
| 72 DPI | 595 × 841 px | 612 × 792 px |
| 150 DPI | 1240 × 1753 px | 1275 × 1650 px |
| 300 DPI | 2480 × 3507 px | 2550 × 3300 px |
Extracting embedded images
A PDF stores each photo as a separate image object and places it on the page at some size. Extraction saves those objects as files, at the pixel size they were stored at, without the rest of the page. If a 3000 × 2000 px photo was placed on a page, extraction gives you that 3000 × 2000 px photo.
Where the difference shows
One of our sample PDFs has a 3000 × 2000 px photo placed across most of a landscape A4 page. Rendered at 150 DPI, the photo occupies about 1670 × 1156 px of the page image, so you've lost almost half the detail in each direction. Rendered at 300 DPI, it occupies about 3341 × 2312 px, which is more pixels than the original but no more detail: the extra pixels are filled in, not recovered.
For a scanned document the gap disappears. Each scanned page is usually one image filling the whole page, so rendering at the scan's own resolution (often 300 DPI) gives you essentially the same pixels as extracting it.
Which one you need
- To share or post a page as it looks (a slide, a flyer, a page of a report), convert the page. Use PNG for text and diagrams, JPG for photo-heavy pages.
- To turn a scan into image files, convert the page at 300 DPI.
- To reuse the photos from a brochure or catalogue at full quality, you need extraction, which our tools don't do yet. The free command-line tool pdfimages, part of Poppler, can do it on your own computer.
Text in images can't be searched
Whichever route you take, the text in the result is part of a picture. You can't select, copy or search it, and screen readers can't read it. Keep the PDF if anyone will need the words.