PDF to JPG Quality and File Size Explained

Pixels, not dpi, decide sharpness on a screen

A PDF page has a size in points: an A4 page is about 595 by 842 points. Drawn at that size, the picture would be 595 by 842 pixels, which looks soft on a modern screen. Drawing it at twice the size gives 1190 by 1684 pixels, equal to about 144 dpi. That is the size ToolsTree uses for a normal page, and it is sharp on most screens.

For very large pages the size is capped at 4096 pixels on the long side. Without a cap, a poster-sized page would ask the browser for a picture so big it could crash the tab.

What size do you need?

• A website or a social post: about 1200 to 1600 pixels wide is plenty. The standard 2x picture of an A4 page (1190 pixels wide) is a good fit.
• A slide: the picture only has to cover the slide. About 1600 to 1900 pixels on the long side is fine.
• Printing on A4 at 300 dpi: you need 2480 by 3508 pixels, more than the standard size gives. For print, send the PDF itself instead of a picture of it.

JPG or PNG?

JPG makes small files and suits photographs. On pages that are mostly sharp black text, JPG can leave a faint fuzz around the letters. PNG keeps text edges crisp but makes bigger files. ToolsTree saves JPG at 90 percent quality; PNG output is not available yet.

Steps

1. Open PDF to Image and choose your PDF. A progress message counts the pages as they are converted.
2. To keep every page, press Download all (ZIP). The files are named after your PDF, for example report_page-1.jpg.
3. To keep one page, press Save JPG under it.

If the files are too big

Pages with large photos or full-colour backgrounds make bigger JPGs than pages of plain text. This tool does not let you choose the quality. If you only need part of a long PDF, extract those pages first with Split PDF, then convert them.