Save one PDF page as a picture

The quick answer

1. Open PDF to JPG and tap Choose PDF files to add your PDF.
2. Tap Choose pages and type the page number, like 3. The line under the box confirms it: "1 picture: page 3."
3. Pick the sharpness. Normal suits most uses; the table below covers the rest.
4. Tap Convert. The button says what it will do, like "Convert 1 page to JPG".
5. Tap Download. One page gives one picture, with no ZIP file to open.

The picture is named after the PDF and the page, like marksheet-page-3.jpg. If the PDF has 10 pages or more, the number gets a zero in front, like report-page-03.jpg. Nothing is uploaded: the page is drawn inside your own browser.

Picking the right page

Count from the first page of the file, not by the number printed on the page. In a book or a long report, the page printed "1" often comes after a cover and a contents list, so it may be page 5 of the PDF. If you're not sure, open the PDF in our PDF viewer and go to the page you want: the page box in its toolbar shows where you are, like 7 / 120.

More than one page? Type them all at once. "2, 5" gives pages 2 and 5. "3-4" gives pages 3 and 4. "7-" gives page 7 to the end. Several pictures come together in one ZIP file, and each also gets its own Download button, which is handier on a phone.

The same page from several PDFs. If you add several PDFs, the same pages are taken from each one. Add five certificates, type 1, and you get the first page of each, every picture named after its own PDF.

A number past the end is skipped, and the page says so before you start. With a 4-page PDF, typing "2, 9" gives page 2, and the line under the box adds that page 9 is skipped because the PDF has only 4 pages.

On an iPhone, the page numbers box opens the full keyboard rather than a number pad, so that you can type commas and dashes. The pages part of the guide has every way to write page numbers.

Why exporting beats a screenshot

A screenshot is the quick way, and for showing a friend one paragraph it is fine. For anything that has to look right, exporting the page wins:

The sharpness gap is the big one. To fit a whole A4 page on a phone screen in a screenshot, you have to zoom out until small print is only a few pixels tall. An export draws the page fresh at the sharpness you pick, whatever your screen is.

Which size suits which use

The three sharpness settings make an A4 page 595 × 842 pixels (Small), 1240 × 1754 (Normal) or 2480 × 3508 (High). Here is what to pick:

Why these choices, and what ppi really means, is explained in PDF to JPG in high quality.

For WhatsApp, Instagram and other apps

Why a picture instead of the PDF? A picture shows up right in the chat, and people see it without opening anything. A PDF has to be downloaded and opened first. A WhatsApp status or an Instagram post can be a picture, but not a PDF.

WhatsApp makes photos smaller when it sends them, which can blur small print. To send the picture exactly as it is, attach it as a document instead of a photo. The other person then taps it to open it. For a notice everyone just needs to glance at, sending it as a photo is fine.

Make the important part big. A whole A4 page on a phone screen has tiny text, and people have to zoom in. If only one part matters, like the timetable on a school circular or the result table in a notice, convert at High and crop that part in your gallery app. It then reads at a glance, and stays sharp because High has pixels to spare.

Status and stories fill a phone screen, which is taller and narrower than an A4 page, so the whole page fits with some space above and below.

Instagram posts can't be as tall as an A4 page, so Instagram asks you to crop it. Normal already has plenty of detail for a phone screen. For a flyer or poster made as a PDF, convert at High and crop to the part you want people to see first.

For slides and documents

A page as a picture drops into PowerPoint, Google Slides, Word or Canva like any photo. A few things make it look better:

• Slides are wide, pages are tall. PowerPoint and Google Slides start with wide slides, so a full upright page sits as a narrow strip in the middle. Usually you want one part of it, like a chart or a table. Convert at High, then crop the picture with the slide program's own crop tool or in a photo editor.
• Diagrams and charts look cleanest as PNG. PNG keeps every pixel, so thin lines and flat colours stay exact. For pages of text, PNG is only a little bigger than JPG: 9% to 28% in our tests.
• In Word, the picture comes in at the page's real size, because each picture carries its ppi. You can shrink it from there.
• The background is always white, like paper. On a dark slide the page shows as a white rectangle; see-through parts are not kept, even in PNG.

Keep the PDF as well. A picture keeps how the text looks, not the text itself, so nobody can search or copy it later.

ID cards and certificates for upload forms

Job, exam, college and government portals often want a certificate, marksheet or ID card as a JPG, sometimes under a limit like 100 KB. Your document may only exist as a PDF, from DigiLocker, a university or an email. Here is how to get a JPG that fits:

1. Convert only the page they want. Every extra page is an extra file to check.
2. Start with Normal and look at the size shown under the picture. If it is under the limit, you are done, and the picture is sharper than at Small.
3. Too big? Choose Small and convert again. Scanned pages come out much smaller there: the pages of our sample scan were 60 to 70 KB each at Small, against 396 to 422 KB each at Normal.
4. Leave a little room below the limit. Websites don't all count KB the same way, so a picture right at the limit may be refused.
5. Zoom in before you upload. Names, dates, roll numbers and seals must be readable.

e-Aadhaar is locked. The e-Aadhaar PDF is protected with a password: the first four letters of your name in capitals, followed by your year of birth. Type it on the PDF's card and press Open. The password is used only on your device, to open the file.

Just the card, not the whole page. On many ID downloads, the card itself takes only part of the page. Convert at High, then crop the card in your gallery app. Cropping away the empty paper also makes the file smaller.

What our tool can't do here: it can't aim at an exact KB size for a JPG, and it can't make a picture an exact width and height in pixels, such as "600 pixels wide". For an exact pixel size, resize the picture in a photo editor after converting. If the portal also accepts a PDF, Resize PDF can make a PDF the sharpest it can be under any size you pick.

Because nothing is uploaded, your Aadhaar, PAN and marksheets stay on your phone or computer the whole time.

Doing it on a phone

Get the PDF onto your phone first. If it came in a chat or an email, open it there and use the app's download or save option, so it lands in your Downloads or the Files app.

On Android, open PDF to JPG in Chrome, Samsung Internet or another up-to-date browser, tap Choose PDF files and pick the PDF from Downloads. After you tap Download, the picture goes to your Downloads folder, where your gallery and Files apps can find it.

On iPhone and iPad, open the page in Safari or Chrome and pick the PDF from the Files app. The picture usually goes to Downloads in the Files app. To add it to Photos, so that you can post it or send it like any photo, open it in Files, tap Share, then Save Image.

One page is quick, even from a long PDF, because only the pages you ask for are drawn. Our 4-page sample scan took 1.4 seconds for all four pages at Normal on a computer. Phones take longer, so keep the page open with the screen on until your picture is ready.

Problems and quick fixes

• It asks for a password. The PDF is locked. Type the password on its card and press Open.
• The picture is sideways. The page is sideways in the PDF too, and each picture shows its page as the PDF does. Turn the picture in your gallery, or turn the page upright in Rotate PDF first and convert the new file.
• Text looks soft. Convert again at High. If the PDF is a scan, the picture can only be as sharp as the scan.
• The file is too big for the form. Choose Small, keep JPG and crop away empty paper. See ID cards and certificates.
• The download didn't show up. Look in Downloads, or in Downloads in the Files app on an iPhone. If it isn't there, press Download again: your picture stays ready until you change something or leave the page.
• "Can't be opened: it may be damaged, or not a PDF." The file may be broken or only partly downloaded. Download it again from where it came from, then add the new copy.

Going the other way, from pictures back to a PDF? JPG to PDF puts JPGs into a PDF without compressing them again.