Turn PDF pages into images: PNG or JPG, and which scale
PDF to Images renders every page to a PNG or JPG at scale 1, 2 or 3, roughly 72, 144 or 216 DPI. An A4 page at scale 2 comes out at 1190 by 1684 pixels. Each page gets its own download button; a one-page PDF downloads on its own.
Where page images earn their keep
One slide lifted out of a PDF deck. A form page dropped into a Word document. A chart pasted into a report, a preview picture for a chat or a listing. In each case the PDF itself is the wrong container and a screenshot is the lazy fix: screenshots cap at your screen resolution and inherit your zoom level. Rendering the page at scale 2 or 3 is sharper than any screenshot of the same page.
Picking the settings
- Format: PNG for pages with text, tables and diagrams — edges stay crisp. JPG for photo-heavy pages — files shrink to a fraction, at a slight softness you will not see in a photograph.
- Scale 1 (about 72 DPI): thumbnails and quick previews. Text is readable on screen, nothing more.
- Scale 2 (about 144 DPI): the default for slides, documents and anything you paste into another file.
- Scale 3 (about 216 DPI): print, or when you plan to crop a small region out of the page and still need it sharp.
Steps
- Add one PDF.
- Choose PNG or JPG and the scale.
- Run it, then download the pages you need from the grid. File names come out as page-1, page-2, and so on, which sorts correctly in any folder.
Worth knowing before a big file
A 100-page PDF at scale 3 renders 100 large canvases in your tab. On a desktop that is a coffee break; on an older phone it can stall. Extract the pages you actually need with PDF Split first, then convert the short excerpt.
JPG pages are rendered on a white background, so a page with a transparent backdrop still lands on white. PNG keeps the page exactly as rendered.
Questions
Is scale 3 enough for a print shop? At 216 DPI an A4 page prints cleanly for office and handout purposes. A print shop asking for 300 DPI needs the original design file, not a rendered page.
Why is the JPG bigger than my PDF page? A page of vector text weighs almost nothing as PDF and a lot as a full-page photograph. For a single chart or slide that trade is fine; for a 60-page text document it is not.