How to Convert a PDF to an Image

You need a PDF page as a picture, for a slide, a website, or a message. Preview on Mac exports one page at a time; on Windows and iPhone a clean screenshot is the quickest built-in route.

Export the page from Preview on Mac

Open the PDF in Preview and click the page you want in the thumbnail sidebar. Choose File, Export. Open the Format dropdown and choose PNG for sharp text or JPEG for photos. Set Resolution to 150 pixels per inch for screen use or 300 for print, then click Save.

Repeat for each page you need

Preview exports only the current page, even if you select several thumbnails. Click the next page in the sidebar and export again. For a long document, use one of the batch methods in the notes below.

Take a screenshot on Windows

Open the PDF in Edge or Chrome and zoom until the page fills the window. Press Windows + Shift + S, drag across the page, and the image is copied to the clipboard and saved in Pictures, Screenshots. The result matches your screen resolution, so it is fine for slides and chat but soft for print.

Screenshot on iPhone

Open the PDF in Files, Mail, or Safari and take a screenshot by pressing the side button and the volume up button together. Tap the thumbnail, crop away the toolbars, and tap Done, Save to Photos.

Use Adobe's PDF to JPG tool for many pages

Go to adobe.com and open the free PDF to JPG tool. Upload the file, choose JPG or PNG, and download a zip with one image per page at full quality.

Command line for technical users. With ImageMagick and Ghostscript installed, run magick -density 150 file.pdf page-%02d.png to write every page as a numbered PNG. Raise the density for higher resolution.

Privacy. Web tools such as Acrobat online, Smallpdf, and iLovePDF upload the PDF to their servers. For documents with personal or financial information, stay with Preview, a screenshot, or the command line.