A friend of mine tutors kids online over Zoom. He has lecture notes as PDFs but he doesn’t share his screen — he drops images in the Zoom chat because it’s easier for the kids to save and refer back to later. So every time he makes new notes, he needs to turn each PDF page into a separate image.
He was screenshotting every page. One by one. Open PDF, zoom to fit, screenshot, crop the screenshot, save, next page. For a 15-page document. Every week. I watched him do it once and my soul left my body.
The easy way
Open convertkr.com/pdf-to-image. Upload the PDF. Pick the format — PNG, JPG, or WEBP. Pick the quality. Click convert. Every page becomes a separate image. Download them all.
My friend’s 15-page notes? All 15 images ready in about 4 seconds. Not per page. Total.
PNG vs JPG vs WEBP — which one to pick
I’m not going to write a whole essay on this because I already did in another post. But the short version for PDF conversion specifically:
PNG if your PDF has text, diagrams, charts, or anything with sharp edges. Text comes out crispy in PNG. In JPG you’ll see that smudgy blur around letters if you zoom in. For my friend’s lecture notes — PNG all the way.
JPG if the PDF is mostly photos or you need smaller file sizes. JPG compresses better than PNG for photographic content. If you’re converting a PDF photo album or a catalog with lots of product photos, JPG makes more sense.
WEBP if the images are going on a website. Smallest files, good quality. But some older apps and platforms don’t support WEBP so if you’re sharing on WhatsApp or email, stick with PNG or JPG.
When in doubt, go PNG. It’s lossless so you’re not sacrificing any quality. File size is bigger but for most situations that doesn’t matter.
The DPI thing
The tool lets you pick DPI — 72, 150, or 300. This confused me the first time I used it so let me explain in normal words.
DPI is basically resolution. Higher DPI = bigger image with more detail.
72 DPI — smallest images. Fine for screen viewing, chat messages, quick sharing. If someone just needs to glance at the page on their phone, this is enough.
150 DPI — good middle ground. What I use most. Clear enough to read all text, small enough to share easily. My friend uses this for his Zoom notes.
300 DPI — print quality. Big files but every detail is sharp. Use this if the images are going to be printed or if you need to zoom in on fine details. Also good if the PDF has small text that gets blurry at lower DPI.
I went with 300 DPI once for a 30-page document and the images were about 3MB each. 90MB total for 30 images. That was overkill. 150 DPI would have been fine. So think about what you actually need before cranking it to max.
Why people need this
Sharing on social media. You can’t upload a PDF to Instagram or Facebook. But you can upload images. A friend made a nice infographic as a PDF in Canva, but needed to post it on Instagram. Converted to PNG, uploaded, done. Looks great.
Putting PDF pages into presentations. You’re making a PowerPoint and want to show a page from a report or a certificate. You can’t insert a PDF into PowerPoint — well you technically can but it looks terrible. Convert the page to an image, insert the image. Clean and clear.
WhatsApp sharing. PDFs on WhatsApp are annoying. They open in a viewer, you have to wait for them to load, the interface is clunky. Images? They just appear in the chat. People actually look at them. A relative shares Quran verses as images in family groups because nobody opens the PDF versions. Smart.
Printing specific pages at a shop. Some print shops struggle with PDFs. I know it sounds weird but the cheap printing places near my area sometimes can’t handle complex PDFs — fonts look wrong, images shift around. Hand them a JPG and it prints exactly as you see it on screen. No font issues, no layout problems. I convert to 300 DPI JPG before going to the printer now.
Making thumbnails. If you have a PDF catalog or portfolio and need preview thumbnails for a website. Convert the first page to an image at 72 DPI, resize it, and you’ve got a thumbnail. I did this for a friend’s architecture portfolio site — each project has a PDF but the homepage shows image previews of page 1.
What about screenshots though
I know what you’re thinking because my friend thought the same. “I can just screenshot each page.”
You can. But:
- Screenshots are limited to your screen resolution. If your screen is 1080p, your screenshot is 1080p. The PDF converter can output at 300 DPI which is way more detail.
- Screenshots include the PDF viewer chrome — toolbars, scroll bars, page borders. You have to crop every single one.
- Doing 15 pages means 15 screenshots, 15 crops, 15 saves. The converter does all pages at once.
- If the page doesn’t fit on your screen, you have to zoom out and lose detail. The converter renders the full page at the DPI you choose regardless of your screen.
Screenshots work in an emergency — like one page, right now, don’t care about quality. For anything more than that, just use the converter.
FAQ
Can I convert just certain pages?
The tool converts all pages. If you only need specific pages, split the PDF first to extract those pages, then convert the smaller PDF to images.
The images have white borders around them.
That’s the page margin from the PDF. The converter captures the full page including margins. If you want the content without borders, crop the images after converting.
Can I convert a 100-page PDF?
You can but think about whether you actually need 100 images. If you do, go for it — it’ll take a bit longer and you’ll get a big ZIP file. For large documents I usually convert specific pages rather than the whole thing.
The text looks blurry in the output.
Increase the DPI. If you’re at 72, bump to 150 or 300. Higher DPI means sharper text. The trade-off is bigger files but for text-heavy documents it’s worth it.
Need to turn PDF pages into images? Open the PDF to image converter — upload, pick format and DPI, download.