How do I change a PDF to a JPG?

JPEG file formats have a lot of benefits. JPEGs are compatible with almost any image editing software and don’t have overly large file sizes. In fact, if you do have a large one, and you moderately reduce its size, you rarely lose quality online.

With JPEG being so versatile, it can sometimes be beneficial to convert a PDF into a JPEG, but the use case is not very common. PDFs can have multiple pages. JPEGs are single “pages.” In fact, it’s more common to convert JPEG to PDF, so you can create multipage photo albums, look books or e-books.

Still, you asked, so we’re answering how to change from PDF to JPG. In this article, we’ll be going through how to perform the conversion of PDF to JPG on most devices.

How to Convert a PDF to JPEG on Mac

Open the Preview app and use the app to open the PDF you want to export as a JPEG. For example, this handsome fellow may be on a specific page of a multipage PDF and you want him as a JPEG.

Once you navigate to the page that you want as a JPEG, go to File > Export. The menu that pops up should look like this:

Here, you’ll see several options for file formats to export the single page of the PDF. You can also choose the folder where the JPEG will be stored. Then, hit save.

Preview can export only one page of a PDF into a JPEG at a time. Multiple pages in a single JPEG are simply not possible; the JPEG file format does not support multiple frames. If you need a single document with multiple pages (like a photo collection), the PDF is meant for this.

If you have multiple JPEGs that need to be in a single document, consider converting them into a PDF file with PDF.Live’s online JPG to PDF Converter. As with any JPG to PDF converter, PDF.Live converts one JPEG at a time; then, you can use the merge feature to combine several PDFs into one, and arrange the pages as you like.

How to Convert a PDF to JPEG on Windows

Windows does not come with a PDF viewer built into the system. However, you can download an app like Adobe Acrobat that allows you to open and edit PDFs. This app also allows you to export PDFs in any format that you need to. Here is how to do it on Acrobat:

1. Open the PDF file with Acrobat.
2. On the toolbar, select “Export PDF”
3. In the export menu, select Image > JPEG
4. Leave the “export all images” unchecked and then Export

Alternatively, you can use a free PDF to JPEG app on the Microsoft Store. The ClearBar App, for example, is a Windows desktop alternative that includes built-in PDF conversion tools. Other options also exist on the Microsoft store, depending on what specific features you’re looking for.

With most PDF to JPG converters, you can only export one page of the PDF into a JPEG at a time. Or, the converter will convert the multiple pages into several different JPEG files. JPEGs have resolutions (e.g. 500×800) and don’t work well with multiple images within a single file. A single file with multiple pages would have a very high resolution and look extremely oblong. They wouldn’t be usable on most devices. PDFs are better for storing multiple images within a single file.

Consider using PDF.Live’s online JPG to PDF Converter if you need to have multiple JPGs in a single file to send around online.

Answers to FAQs About Changing PDFs to JPEGs

Can you export PDF to JPG?

Yes, in some programs, PDFs can be exported as images such as JPGs. You will need to use a PDF viewer like Adobe Acrobat to do this. When you have the PDF open, select Export and then click the Convert To dropdown. Select Image. 

From here, you can select which image format you would like your PDF to save as. Note that with Adobe Acrobat, the image will be exported within a .zip file. 

Is it possible to convert multiple PDF pages to JPG?

Yes, this method allows you to convert multiple PDF pages to JPGs. However, it will convert each PDF page as a separate JPG. This is because if all the PDF pages were exported as a single JPG, the image would be very stretched out and difficult to read. The above method will “pack” all of your JPG pages into a single ZIP file.

In this example, a PDF with 6 pages was converted to 6 separate JPGs: 

Can you just save a PDF as a JPEG?

Technically, no. You need to use a PDF conversion tool to export your PDF as JPG images. The export process may look very similar to saving a PDF, but differs slightly. A web browser, for example, can be used to view PDFs but won’t let you save PDFs as JPG files.  

What if I need a high-resolution JPG?

When converting your PDF to a JPG, you may have noticed that you can adjust the image quality of the exported JPG files. The higher the image quality, the higher the resolution of the resulting JPGs will be. Note that this will cause the exported JPGs to have a larger file size and take more memory to store. You can learn more about file compression quality in this post about lossy versus lossless file compression. 

What is the best way to convert a PDF to a JPG?

The Adobe Acrobat Reader is the best way to convert PDFs to JPGs. The free version of the reader lets you open and view PDFs with some simple commenting and highlighting abilities. It also allows you to export your PDFs to image files. However, the Adobe Acrobat Reader is a separate program that does require a download to use. If you need to convert your PDFs to and from other file formats, check out PDF.Live’s web browser-based conversion services. 

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Do you have multiple JPG (also JPEG) photos you want to combine into one place? It’s a common need, whether you’re digitizing old photo albums, sending a batch of images to a client, or just trying to cut down on clutter. The short answer: You can’t merge JPGs into a single JPG file. But you can convert them into a multi-page, high-resolution PDF, which works even better.

Here’s why and how to do it. 

Why Can’t You Merge JPGs (JPEG)?

A JPG is a single image with a fixed resolution. You’ll sometimes see this format listed as JPEG; they’re the same thing, just two names for the same file type. Resolution is the number of pixels in an image — those tiny colored squares that, from a distance, form a recognizable picture. A typical high-quality photo runs 1920 x 1080 pixels or higher.

Why Can’t I Merge JPGs?

This is because a JPG is considered a single image with a fixed resolution. The resolution of an image refers to how many pixels are displayed per inch of an image. A pixel is a tiny square that contains a color and the resolution represents how many of these squares there are in the image (width X height). If you look closely at your monitor or zoom in on a digital image, you will see these tiny squares that appear as an image when observed from a distance.

_{Image source: Wikipedia}

If you tried to combine two JPGs into one file, the result would be both images stacked into one giant image — not two separate photos in one file. A 100 x 100 image merged with another 100 x 100 image would produce one 100 x 200 image. Scale that up to full-sized photos, and you’d end up with a bloated, distorted mess that’s hard to view and impossible to browse like a photo album.

There’s no page structure in a JPG. No way to flip through images one at a time. That’s where PDF comes in.

How to Merge JPEG Into PDF Instead

PDFs are built for exactly this — holding multiple images in a single, browsable file, each displaying a separate image, clean, full-sized, and easy to scroll through. Think of it as a digital photo album where each photo gets its own page.

Here’s how to merge JPEG into PDF with PDF.Live:

1. Head to PDF.Live’s JPG to PDF converter.
2. Drag and drop your JPG files into the tool.
3. Click Convert. Each image becomes its own page in a PDF.
4. If the converter produces one PDF per image, head to the Merge PDF tool, drag in your converted files, and click Merge. You’ll download a single PDF with all your images inside.

If anything looks off — spacing, alignment, order — the PDF Editor lets you rearrange pages, crop, and adjust until it looks right.

When you’re done, you’ll have one clean file with all your photos ready to share or store. You can even compress the PDF before sending it, which makes it faster to email or upload without sacrificing much quality.

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In this post, we will answer how to change a picture into a PDF, whether it is a photo from your phone, a picture you’ve created, or something that you’ve scanned and want to save in a digital file format.

When you think of a PDF, you probably picture a text document, a digital brochure, or an e-book. But did you know that you can make a picture into a PDF file? Converting pictures to PDF formats can be beneficial because photos and groups of photos are too large to share (read more about sharing PDFs online). 

But here’s the real benefit: PDFs last forever. They don’t yellow and fade like printed photos do. If you store PDFs in the cloud (such as on Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive), you don’t have to worry about your precious photos being damaged by nature’s elements, yellowed as they age, or simply lost after one too many moves.

Sending a photo album digitally is possible, but photo file sizes can easily become too large to email. Converting photos or photo collages to a PDF allows you to easily share your treasured moments digitally with whomever you want. You can email the PDF directly rather than sending them a download or cloud link to where you’ve saved the photos. You also won’t have to worry about the types of devices your friends and family have, as they can open PDFs on any device.

Whatever your reason may be, we’ll be going through the different ways you can turn a picture into a PDF. We’ll cover converting pictures to a PDF, as well as how to merge multiple images into a PDF.

What Image File Types Will Convert Into a PDF?

Most files that you create with a digital camera, scanner, smartphone or tablet can be converted to PDFs. These include files with the following extensions: JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, and GIF. There are other lesser-known image file types, but those are the more common.

PDFs will preserve any formatting that you’ve built in these programs. This is useful if you’ve created a digital scrapbook, for example, which allows you to put pictures alongside the text. If you don’t want the text or headings to resize and ruin the page layout, a PDF will preserve all this, so anyone can use it.

Turn JPG files into PDFs

There are different ways to turn images into PDFs, depending on what the file format is for the picture. To find out the file format, you’ll need to locate the image on your device and see what the filename ends in or what is listed under “type.” 

If your image is a JPG, it’s easy to convert it to a PDF with PDF.live. We offer a JPG to PDF converter online that can make your image into a PDF. To learn more about converting JPGs to PDFs, our JPG to PDF converter tool has information and FAQs on the conversion process.

Turn Other Image Files into PDFs

If your image is saved as a different type of file, there are a few other methods of converting it to a PDF. The first method, and most easily accessible, is by using the Photos app on a Windows device or the Preview app on Mac.

First, open the image you want to convert to a PDF in their respective programs.

For Windows users

Then, select the toolbar dropdown at the top of the program and find Print.

Upon selecting Print, you’ll be shown a preview of the image you want to print. Select the dropdown for Printers and choose Microsoft Print to PDF. When you select Print, you’ll be prompted to save the image. Only this time, you’ll see the file format you save as listed as PDF instead of an image.

This process will create a single PDF for each image file. To combine a single PDF into a multipage PDF, here is a step-by-step guide. 

For Mac users

On Mac, use Preview, which is a standard installed app. Right-click file and select Preview app to open it.

Select Export.

On Mac, you can directly select the file format you want to export as in the dropdown menu. Both JPG and PDF will be listed here.

Convert PDF to Image

What about the other way around, PDF to JPG? Making a PDF an image is easy and can be done with any PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. Using a reader, first locate the PDF you want to convert to an image on your computer and open it using the reader.

For Windows users

Select File and Save as.

At the bottom of the Save as window, select Convert to. You’ll see a list of image formats that you can make your PDF into. For images, you’ll be interested in JPG, TIFF, and PNG.

Adobe will produce a ZIP file, which contains one JPG for every page of your original PDF. So, a 12-page PDF produces 12 JPG files. The larger your file, the longer the conversion takes. Select Download.

Important notes about the PDF-to-image process: While image and PDF files are similar in many ways, there is at least one important difference. Image file formats accommodate only one image per file; PDFs can accommodate as many as you need.

For Mac users

Open Preview and open your PDF. Preview allows you to create JPEG files a page at a time, but not in bulk. Right-click on the page you’d like to convert to a JPEG and select Export as.

Set Format to JPEG, name the new image (ebook page 1. jpg in this example), and select Save.

Create a PDF from Multiple Images

We mentioned previously that storing multiple images in a single PDF can make sending pictures over the web much more convenient. So how do you do this? After you’ve done the steps above to convert your image files, you’ll need to use a merge tool to combine multiple PDFs into a single document.

PDF.live has a merge tool that allows you to do just this. You can simply drag and drop the images you’ve converted to PDFs into the tool and they’ll be merged into a single document.

Inserting Images Into PDF Files

Add image to a PDF page: Inserting one image or several in a PDF is easy enough if you have access to a PDF editor. We have a tutorial on putting images in PDFs using the PDF.Live editor. This process involves converting your PDF into an editable PDF and using the Add Image tool. This will allow you to insert your image wherever you’d like on any editable PDF.

Insert JPEG as a PDF page: To add an image to a PDF as a new page, you’ll need to convert your images to PDFs and then merge them with the target PDF. 

Tips for Turning Pictures Into PDFs

Scanning PDFs

If you have physical pictures (photographs, magazine pages, artwork for example) that you want to turn into PDFs, you’ll need to scan them. Some modern printers have built-in scanners that has options for the file type it outputs. With this, you may be able to scan directly to a PDF. If that is not an option, select .jpg (or JPEG on a Mac). Then use PDF.Live to convert from JPEG to PDF.

When scanning, if you want to save the photos as a digital format, be sure to use the highest optical resolution the scanner has. This will make sure that the photo doesn’t look pixelated or incomplete when you export it, but it will also increase the file size. If you want to have a good balance of quality and medium file size, scan at 600dpi in your scanner settings.

Scanning alternatives

If you don’t have a physical scanner, some Android and iPhone apps (DocScan app in the Apple App Store) enable you to scan documents through your smartphone’s camera. 

The Google Drive App will allow you to create new PDFs from a photo scan. Keep in mind that the quality of the picture that you ultimately convert to a PDF will be dependent on your phone’s camera and the quality of your lighting.

Third-Party Mass Scanning

There are also online photo digitizing services that can handle large numbers of file conversions. This type of service can take time, though, because you have to physically mail your photos to a service and trust them to handle your pictures with care. Some online services that do this include*:

• DigMyPics
• Fotobridge
• ScanCafe
• ScanMyPhotos

*We found these services by searching online for “photo digitizing service.” Listing them here does not equate to an endorsement. Please check user reviews before entrusting your valuable photos with any digitizing service.

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With how easy it is to take photos with our smartphones, it’s become increasingly necessary to have access to a high-quality photo editor to adjust, fix, or even remove certain content. But, most of the common photo editors, like Adobe Photoshop demand a monthly subscription in order to regularly use. 

Fortunately, a lot of alternative photo editors exist that you can use entirely for free. Free image editors will allow you to edit photos, digital images, and even screenshots from your computer. These photo editors are powerful, cheaper alternatives to photoshop that can even sometimes be accessed entirely online – no additional downloads required. 

This article will outline some free online image editors that you can use in your PDF documents. See our JPG to PDF converter tool.

Free Photo Editing Apps You Probably Already Have

Apple Photos

Apple users, look for the Photos app on your laptop, iPad or iPhone. Not only is this app where you go to find your stored photos and videos, but it’s also a built-in editor. You can apply built-in filters, crop the image, adjust the color and brightness, plus apply a variety of Photoshop-like features to sharpen your photos. 

Microsoft Photos

Photos by Microsoft may come installed on your Windows computer, and it’s compatible with Windows 8, 10 and 11. It will let you crop, adjust, filter, markup retouch and alter the background of photos. And, because it is installed on your device, it syncs with your cloud storage (OneDrive). 

Free Online Programs Like Photoshop

If you’re looking for free online image editor solutions that don’t require you to download and install a program, software, or app, here are 5 sites that have free options for online photo editing. 

Canva

Canva allows you to upload images and immediately start editing your images for free. The Canva editor has a free plan that offers limited, but free, photo editing options. 

Pros:

• Image templates
• Drag-and-drop customizability tools
• Powerful AI-powered design tools
• Collaborative editing with other users 

Cons:

• Advanced features locked behind pay wall — Canva Pro is $14.99/mo or $120/yr
• Customer support only available to pro users

Canva Pro has millions of photos, templates, and graphics to use when producing images. It also has cheaper business subscriptions that will give you multiple licenses to be used by several users. You will also have access to 1TB of cloud storage. 

Adobe Express

Adobe, who makes Photoshop, also has a free online photo editor that’s accessible entirely through your web browser. This editor has many simple features, such as removing backgrounds, adding filters, and cropping photos. 

Pros: 

• Familiar for users familiar with Adobe products
• Some AI tools
• Can also edit graphics, videos, animations, and documents

Cons: 

• Limited access to most tools
• Adobe pushes you toward paying for one of their programs

Adobe Express is a great, simple option, with the clear upgrade being the monthly subscription for Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop will grant you far more features, such as layers, drawing tools, and more. 

PhotoEditor.com

Likely the most straightforward photo editor that we’ll suggest, Photo Editor is a no-nonsense online photo editor that provides you access to a lot of tools entirely in your web browser. With this photo editor, you simply upload or search for your photo and get started editing. 

Pros:

• Immediate access to a lot of tools
• Free, no pushes toward a paid premium version
• Can search for an image to edit by URL — don’t have to upload the photo

Cons:

• Simplistic UI
• Functionality comparable to Microsoft Paint

Fotor

Fotor is a free online image editor that has free effects, editing tools, and even AI tools. Fotor’s free editor is fairly simple to use by dragging and dropping your image into the tool. Note that while an account is not needed to use the editor, it is required if you want to store edited images online. 

Pros:

• Intuitive, easy to use
• Lots of AI tools
• Free premium trial to try out

Cons:

• Free version has ads
• Mostly meant for editing images of people
• Watermarked images on download

Fotor Pro comes with more templates, editing tools, AI tools, and removes watermarks on downloads. 

Sumopaint

Sumopaint can be thought of as an online, free photoshop alternative. It has many features beyond editing photos, such as drawing and making shapes in an image. Sumopaint doesn’t require an account to use and does have a premium version, but the free version is still very powerful. 

Pros: 

• Painting, drawing, and shape creation features
• AI tools for generating images
• Layers and other capabilities familiar to photoshop users
• Premium version is only $4/mo

Cons: 

• Limited options for masking 
• Other features may be locked behind pro paywall
• Limited free AI options — just a text-to-image generator

Sumo Pro will grant users all Pro editing features and 30 daily AI credits. You can try out Sumo Pro with a 7-day free trial, which can be canceled at any time. 

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