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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• Add photos to a PDF
• Add JPG and other image files to PDFs
• Insert a photo into a PDF
• Paste images in PDFs
• Remove images from PDFs
• Extract specific images from PDFs
• Delete images from a PDF

PDF.Live’s online editor allows you to work with PDFs and several image formats. We’ve covered how to convert PDFs to JPEG images as well as how to turn pictures into PDFs. But what if you want to add an image to a PDF? What if you want to remove a specific image from a PDF? Or pull that image out of a PDF for use somewhere else?

With the editor, you can both add and remove an image from a PDF entirely online. This works with several popular image formats and with all PDFs. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process for adding and removing images from PDFs. 

How to Insert Photos to a PDF with the PDF.Live Editor

1. Upload your PDF to the online editor to convert it to an editable PDF.

Either drag and drop your PDF into the editor, or select the file from your browser. Then select Edit PDF to enter the editor.

2. In the PDF editor toolbar, select Add Image.

3.  Click anywhere in your document where you’d like your image to appear.

The location and size of the image can be adjusted once it’s inserted, so don’t worry too much about getting the exact location correct. Focus on inserting the image on the right page of your PDF.

4. Navigate to the file location that contains the image you’d like to add to your PDF.

You can add images in the form of several popular file formats, such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF. GIF files can also be added to the PDF, but they may not be animated, and are typically of low resolution if your intention is to print the PDF. There may be other image file formats your images are in, such as HEIC. However, those are not supported by the add image feature.

Select the image file you’d like to add.

You will then see the image added to your PDF. You can further adjust the width and height of the image (in pixels) by dragging the dimensions of the picture with your mouse.

You can also click the center of the image to change its placement in your PDF. Select the Trash can icon at the bottom of the image to delete it.

Notice that the Select icon is currently selected. If you deselect or click away from any images you’ve added to your PDF, or make other edits, you can always go back and edit their positions again by clicking the Select icon. You will also have to click New Image to continue editing existing images. You can even edit images that are already in your PDF!

Note that the quality of your images will be tied to the original file’s resolution. If you resize an image to have a larger pixel dimension than the original file, it may look blocky and low-quality. The larger the original PDF image, the fewer issues you’ll likely have.

How To Delete an Image From a PDF

While editing content, you’ll notice that the PDF.Live editor detects regions of content for you to edit, including images. If you want to remove an image entirely, follow these steps: 

1.  Click the Select tool. 

2. Click the image that you want to remove that you added. 

3. Click Delete to remove the image from your PDF. 

This process can be undone with the undo feature Ctrl + Z. If you want that image back, you can undo your last command or redo a command by selecting one of those options on the top right of the PDF.Live editor!

4. To remove an image that’s already in your PDF, select the Edit Text tab. Editable areas of your PDF, including images, can now be selected.

5. Click the image that you want to remove in your PDF. Click the Trash Can icon or press Delete on your keyboard. That image will be deleted.

You can also Move existing images around in your PDF this way!

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In this article, we cover the most common use cases for images and what file format is best for each case. 

Understanding Resolution and DPI

A digital image is essentially a bunch of small colored squares that form a picture when placed next to each other. This is actually how your monitor or phone screen works too and is sometimes also referred to as “resolution” when talking about screens and monitors. 

In terms of image files, we usually think of the density of colored squares as dots per inch, or DPI. Sometimes you’ll also hear dots per inch referred to as pixels per inch, or PPI. This is just the digital version of dots per inch, as pixels are the digital equivalent of colored squares. 

DPI and PPI describe the number of colored dots that are contained within one square inch of the image. The higher the DPI, or the denser the amount of colored dots within a square inch, the higher quality the image will be. However, higher dots per inch means a larger file size, which will take up more storage space on your computer or wherever you store files. 

As you build images for different use cases, you’ll need different image resolutions depending on the size and detail of the use case. Here are a few recommended resolutions for common printed images:

• Business cards: 1098 x 648 resolution and 180+ DPI
• Large poster: 3200 x 4800 resolution and 300+ DPI
• Brochure: 1200 x 1800 resolution or 300+ DPI

Best File Formats for Print and Web

Now that you know a bit more about how image files work, what is the best quality image format? 

This depends on your use case and how important high-quality images are for your job. Certain print images, for example, require very high resolution files to maintain quality. While certain web images may be ok at a lower resolution. 

Best image format for quality printing

If you’re printing high-quality brochures, posters, or pamphlets, we recommend using a PDF to build the document. PDFs aren’t technically image file formats, but they are good at organizing and building high-quality print material without any quality loss. Additionally, PDFs can have multiple images placed within a PDF for easier organization.

Unlike other file formats, PDFs can be edited with a PDF editor. If you need to adjust the locations of images or text within your PDF, it’s far easier to do this with an editor than an image file, which will require the use of a program like Photoshop. 

Document editors like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Google Slides can also be used to build pamphlets and brochures. You can then export the document as a PDF for easy printing. 

Best quality photo format

For photos, we recommend using a PNG or JPG file format. Not only are these the most common file formats used for storing photos, but they’re also excellent for high-resolution images. There are some differences depending on your use case. If you have a logo, for example, with a transparent background, use a PNG. Let’s see more about the differences between JPGs and PNGs: 

JPG

• Designed for compacting larger images into smaller file sizes (uses lossy compression)
• Easier for sharing and storing
• Usually viewable and editable on any device and with several apps

PNG

• Designed for higher quality images and larger file sizes (uses lossless compression)
• Supports transparency
• Excellent for high-detail images with more color options

For your photos, it’s best to assess your specific needs and priorities to determine whether a JPG or a PNG is better for you. 

Best image type for websites

For websites, image files need to be high quality without increasing the load times of your web page. This is a tough spot to be, as you have to be careful about the file sizes of your images. 

The WebP is a popular image format that’s used for web pages as it supports transparency, lossy, and lossless compression. This versatility lets you adjust, tweak, and optimize your image for your webpage. For example, you can create a logo image as a WebP with a transparent background. 

It’s also fairly easy to convert your PNG and JPGs to WebP formats using a WebP encoder tool.

Best file format for sharing 

If you need to share image files at work, with family, or online, the best format to use is PDF. PDFs are great for efficiently storing high-resolution images without taking up a lot of file space. Plus, you can combine several image files into a single sharable PDF. 

If you’re wondering how to convert your images to a PDF, you can use a JPG to PDF converter and then merge your PDF pages into a single PDF for easy sharing. PDFs can also be compressed and optimized to further decrease their file size.

Best file format for artwork

The TIFF file format is one of the best formats for large image files that you may use for artwork. TIFF uses lossless compression, so the quality doesn’t drop as you share your image. TIFF files will hold the most information that you need for artwork with photograph-level quality. 

The only downside is that TIFF files will be pretty large. This is normally ok and expected for high resolution artwork, but it is something to keep in mind!

PDFs vs. Other File Formats

See how versatile PDFs are? While they are a powerful file format, they aren’t always the best option for every use case. Let’s look at the main differences between PDFs and other file formats:

• PDFs let you store multiple images efficiently within a single file.
• PDFs are easy to compress and share without significant loss to resolution quality.
• PDFs can be converted to other file formats (and you can convert other files to PDFs!).
• PDFs are easy to store on your computer.
• Images can be placed in PDFs if you want an image to be part of your document.
• PDFs are easy to share because they are universally accessible across devices.

That said, you may want to use an image file like a TIFF or PNG if you need the highest resolution possible. If you’re printing a poster or photograph, you may be better off with another file format specifically meant for images. If you need an image with a transparent background, you will also need to use a WebP or a PNG. 

With that said, it’s never been easier to work with PDFs with PDF.Live. Try out PDF.Live’s suite of PDF management tools today for free with our free trial!

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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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Compressing a file allows you to store and send files across the web at a fraction of their original file size. A file compression program searches for patterns within your data and stores the data in a much simpler format. If you’ve ever compressed a file, you may notice some differences in the quality from the original. For example, if you’ve texted an image to someone over the phone, the receiver may complain about how the image is illegible or “grainy.” Other times, there may be no issues with the quality of an uncompressed file. 

There are two types of file compressions: lossy vs lossless. 

• Lossy: File compression method that removes redundant data to significantly reduce the size of a file. Some data will be deleted, resulting in a smaller file when the data is uncompressed. PDF.Live’s PDF compression tool is a lossy-style compressor — compressing PDFs may change the resolution of the new PDF. 
• Lossless: File compression method that doesn’t remove data during compression. The quality of the data won’t be affected but the resulting compressed file may not be much smaller than the original file. Zipping files is an example of lossless file compression — zipping a PDF does not change the integrity of the PDF. 

How Does File Compression Work?

File compression software packages larger files into smaller parts and smooshes them together so they’re easier to “ship” online. That’s the layman’s way to explain it. If you’re a technophile who wants to learn more about how, exactly file compression works, we suggest this article on How Stuff Works, which explains how file compression tools look for patterns and redundancies to reduce files to smaller sizes. If you’re looking to understand the difference between lossy and lossless file compression, read on …  

Lossy Compression Definition

The meaning of the word “lossy” is, simply, involving some loss of data. 

A lossy compression program will significantly reduce the file size or quality of an original file. You may be wondering: Why would you ever want this? Sometimes an image file may come in a very high resolution that is unnecessary for how you’re using it. If you want to host an image on a website, for example, you don’t need the same quality as you’d need for printing the image. High-quality images may cause webpages to take longer to load, which can negatively impact your website’s performance in search results. 

Also, if you want to send an image by email, it may be too large to attach to a message. As long as the recipient doesn’t need the file in its original size, you can compress it so it is smaller and easier to send by email, text message or other online file-sharing methods. 

PDF.Live has an online PDF compression service that you can try out today. PDF.Live’s online PDF compressor is a lossy compression tool, but it reduces PDF file sizes with minimum impact on the information contained within. 

Lossless Definition

What lossless means, in digital terms, is without loss of any data.

In a separate article, we cover ZIP files, which are a form of lossless compression. This means that any data compressed in a ZIP file can then be unzipped with no effect on the original data. ZIP files can be used on images, audio, text/text files, or a mix of many file types. For example, a software program that operates on your computer may be packaged within a single ZIP file that you download and then uncompress to install. 

The process of compressing files is useful for saving space on your device’s hard drive as well as making files easier to share when uploading/downloading them. However, compressing a file can have potential downsides. 

Lossy and Lossless – Which is Better?

The method that you use will be dependent on the type of data and how you plan to use the compressed file. 

A JPEG image works well with lossy compression and most programs will automatically compress JPEGs using lossy compression. Compressing a JPEG with a lossy method will result in a slightly lower-quality image but a far smaller file size. Lossy compression may also damage a transparent background, or the legibility of images with a lot of text (such as converted PDFs!). 

Example of lossy compression, before and after

On-screen, the before-and-after differences are barely detectable. Below, we used a 3rd party service called compressor.io to compress a JPEG of a closeup of a horse: 

The lossy compressed version of this file is far smaller than the original, but the quality on-screen barely changes.

TIFF, BMP, and RAW images work far better with lossless file compression. The resulting compressed versions of these files won’t be much smaller than the original images, but the quality won’t diminish. 

Example of lossless file compression, before and after

If you need an image to stay as high quality as possible, lossless file compression is probably better. Again, we used compressor.io to do lossless compression of the horse closeup:

However, the disc space that these files will take up on your system is almost exactly the same. 

Below is the original file next to the compressed versions of the file. The top one uses lossy compression and reduces the file size by 90%. The second compression is lossless and compresses the file size by only 6%. You can see in the before-and-after comparisons below, that the difference is barely detectable.   

Experiment with zipping, compressing, and uncompressing files to see what method works best for your needs. If you need to compress PDFs, PDF.Live has online PDF compression services that you can try out today. PDF.Live’s online PDF compressor reduces file sizes with minimum impact on the information contained within. 

Illustration 36507038 | Ekostsov | Dreamstime.com

Horse photo 16608234 | Nohead Lam | Dreamstime.com

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