PDF to Image Converter
Rendered in your browser. The file is never uploaded.
Choose a PDF and press Render.
The PDF to image converter renders each page of a PDF to a PNG you can download individually, at up to four times the document’s natural resolution. Rendering runs in your browser using the same engine Firefox uses to display PDFs, so nothing is uploaded.
How it works
A PDF page is a set of drawing instructions rather than an image, so it has no inherent pixel resolution. The scale factor decides how finely those instructions are rasterised.
- 1x renders at 72 DPI, which matches the PDF point system and is fine for on-screen thumbnails.
- 2x gives roughly 144 DPI, which is the right choice for most screen use.
- 3x and 4x approach print resolution and produce correspondingly large files.
- The first 20 pages are rendered. Beyond that, browser memory becomes the limiting factor.
This renders pages, which is not the same as extracting embedded images. A page rendered at 2x is a picture of the whole page including its text; pulling out the original photographs at their native resolution is a different operation.
Examples
A report at screen resolution
Input
A 12-page PDF
Resolution
2x
Result
Twelve PNGs at roughly 1,190 × 1,684 pixels each for A4
A4 is 595 × 842 points, so 2x gives 1,190 × 1,684 pixels, comfortable for viewing on a high-density display.
A long document
Input
A 60-page PDF
Result
The first 20 pages are rendered, and the tool says so
Each rendered page is held in memory as a data URL. Twenty pages at 2x is already substantial; sixty would exhaust the tab on many devices.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the page limit 20?
Because each rendered page is held in memory as a PNG data URL, and a 4x A4 page is several megabytes. Twenty is comfortable on most devices; going much beyond it risks the tab running out of memory mid-render, which loses everything.
Does this extract the images embedded in the PDF?
No, it renders whole pages, text and all. Extracting the original embedded photographs at their native resolution is a different operation, and the result would be the source images rather than pictures of the pages.
What resolution should I pick?
2x for anything viewed on screen, which is roughly 144 DPI. Use 3x or 4x only if the images are destined for print, and expect the files to be several megabytes each.
Why will my PDF not open?
Usually password protection. An encrypted PDF cannot be rendered without the password, and this tool does not prompt for one. Corrupt files and PDFs using unusual embedded font formats are the other common causes.