PDF to JPG and PNG, Explained
How to convert a PDF to JPG or PNG: which DPI to pick, pixel sizes for A4 and Letter pages, JPG vs PNG for text and photos, and fixing blurry or huge images.
By Udit Agarwal · Updated October 17, 2026
Converting a PDF to JPG or PNG means drawing each page onto a grid of pixels at a resolution you choose and saving that grid as an image, one file per page. The resolution decides how sharp the text looks and how large the files get, and the format decides whether text stays crisp (PNG) or photos stay small (JPG). The result is a picture of the page: it looks the same on every device, but its text can no longer be selected, searched or edited.
A PDF page is not stored as a picture. It is a list of drawing instructions: put these letters in this font at this position, draw this line, place this photo here. A PDF viewer follows those instructions every time you open or zoom the page, which is why text in a PDF stays sharp at any zoom.
Rendering, also called rasterizing, follows those instructions once, onto a fixed grid of pixels, and keeps the result, with the edges of letters softened by in-between shades so they look smooth at that size. From then on the page behaves like a photo: zooming in shows bigger pixels, not sharper letters, so the resolution you pick at this step matters most.
Rendering is different from extracting. A rendered page contains everything on it: text, drawings, photos and background. If you only want a photo or logo that was placed in the PDF, Extract Images from PDF saves those images at the resolution stored in the file, without the rest of the page.
PDF page sizes are measured in points. ISO 32000, the PDF standard, sets the default unit at 1/72 inch, so an A4 page (210 × 297 mm) is 595.28 × 841.89 points and a US Letter page (8.5 × 11 inches) is 612 × 792 points.
The pixel size of a rendered page is its size in inches multiplied by the resolution in pixels per inch, usually called DPI. Some converters express the resolution as a scale instead, and ArrayKit's PDF to Images is one of them: 1× draws one pixel per point, which is 72 DPI, 1.5× is 108 DPI and 2× is 144 DPI. These are the sizes you get:
| Resolution | A4 page (pixels) | US Letter page (pixels) | Megapixels (A4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1× (72 DPI) | 595 × 841 | 612 × 792 | 0.5 |
| 1.5× (108 DPI) | 892 × 1262 | 918 × 1188 | 1.1 |
| 2× (144 DPI) | 1190 × 1683 | 1224 × 1584 | 2.0 |
| 150 DPI | 1240 × 1754 | 1275 × 1650 | 2.2 |
| 300 DPI | 2480 × 3508 | 2550 × 3300 | 8.7 |
The pixel count grows with the square of the resolution. Going from 1× to 2× quadruples the pixels, and 300 DPI holds about 4.3 times as many as 2×.
Work back from where the image will be seen.
A higher resolution cannot add detail the PDF does not contain: a page scanned at 150 DPI gets no sharper when rendered at 300, only bigger.
Both formats store the same rendered pixels, in different ways:
| PNG | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless: every pixel kept exactly | Lossy: fine detail simplified |
| Text and line art | Crisp edges | Faint smudges around letters when zoomed in |
| Photos | Large files | Much smaller files |
| Transparency | Supported by the format | Not supported |
For text, the sizes are closer than many people expect. A full page of small text rendered at 2× came to about 600 KB as a PNG and 490 KB as a JPG, so PNG costs little extra and keeps every letter exact. For a page filled by a photograph the gap is wide: the same render was about 3.75 MB as a PNG and 250 KB as a JPG, some fifteen times smaller. Sizes depend on the content and on the browser doing the encoding, so treat these as examples. PNG suits text, charts and diagrams; JPG suits photo-heavy pages and upload limits.
PNG can store transparent pixels and JPG cannot, but for PDF pages the difference rarely shows. Viewers present PDF pages as white paper, and ArrayKit's converter paints white under every page before drawing it, so the PNG and the JPG both come out with a solid white background. A coloured page background stays, because the page itself draws it.
For a logo or another graphic on its own, extract the placed image instead of rendering the page, or export it again from the program that made the PDF.
An image holds a single page, so a ten-page PDF becomes ten files. ArrayKit names them after the PDF, such as report-page-1.png and report-page-2.png, and offers them all in one ZIP called report-pages.zip. The ZIP does not shrink them, because PNG and JPG data is already compressed, so it is about as large as the images together. The guide to ZIP files explains how to open it on any device.
Each page keeps its own shape, so a wide page among tall ones comes out as a wide image. The page numbers are not padded with zeros, so software that sorts strictly by letter lists page-10 before page-2. Finder and File Explorer sort numbers naturally, and PDF to ZIP pads them when a strict order matters.
An image is a photograph of the page, so the parts that made it a document are gone:
That is often the point. An image shows the page exactly as you see it, in any chat app, slide or web page, with no fonts to go missing. Keep the PDF anyway. If you need the words, PDF to Text copies them out of the original file, and if only the image survives, OCR can read them back, as the guide to OCR explains.
The text looks blurry. The page was rendered at a low resolution and is being shown larger than its pixel size, which is common on high-density phone and laptop screens. Render at 2× and save text pages as PNG. For more pixels than that, PDF to ZIP renders at up to 216 DPI and PDF to TIFF at up to 300 DPI.
The files are huge. Photo pages saved as PNG are the usual cause. Switch to JPG, or step down from 2× to 1.5×, which has 44 percent fewer pixels.
Only part of the document came out. ArrayKit's converter renders up to 50 pages per run. Cut a longer document into parts with Split PDF, or use PDF to ZIP, which renders up to 200 pages into one archive.
The PDF will not open. A PDF that asks for a password when you open it cannot be rendered until the protection is removed. If you know the password, Decrypt PDF saves an unprotected copy.
PDF to Images turns each page of a PDF into a PNG or JPG. Drop in a PDF and every page is rendered straight away, with a running page count, then shown as a preview. It starts with PNG at 1.5×; switch between PNG and JPG or between 1×, 1.5× and 2× (72, 108 and 144 DPI) and the pages are rendered again. Download any single page from its preview, or every page at once as a ZIP. JPG pages are saved at 85 percent quality on a white background.
Its limits: up to 50 pages per run, with a notice when a document is longer; one PDF at a time; 144 DPI at most; and no PDFs that need a password to open. The PDF is opened and drawn by your browser on your own device, and it is not uploaded.
How do I convert a PDF to JPG? Open the PDF in a converter such as PDF to Images, choose JPG and a resolution, and download the pages. Each page becomes its own JPG, so a multi-page PDF gives several files, which you can download together as a ZIP.
What DPI should I use to convert a PDF to an image? For screens, slides and documents, 108 to 144 DPI (the 1.5× and 2× settings) is enough. For print, 300 DPI is the usual standard, although printing the PDF itself gives sharper text than any image.
Is PNG or JPG better for a PDF page? PNG for pages of text, charts and diagrams, because it keeps every edge exact at a similar size. JPG for pages dominated by photos, where it can be many times smaller with no visible loss at normal viewing size.
Can I convert just one page of a PDF to an image? Yes. PDF to Images renders all the pages, up to 50, and each preview has its own download button, so you can save only the page you want. To get that page as a one-page PDF instead, use Split PDF.
Why does my image have a white background instead of a transparent one? PDF pages are shown on white, and the converter paints white under each page before drawing it. JPG cannot store transparency at all, and the PNG output is opaque as well.
Why is the image so much larger than the PDF? A page of text in a PDF can take only a few kilobytes, because it is stored as drawing instructions. An image has to store every pixel, and a page at 2× has about 2 million of them, so even compressed it takes hundreds of kilobytes.
Is my PDF uploaded when I convert it? Not with ArrayKit's PDF to Images. The pages are drawn and the images are made by your browser, on your own device.