- PDF is a standard file format for presenting documents in an electronic format.
- However, you’ll sometimes also see PDF being used with images, which isn’t wise considering its large file size and dependence on PDF programs to be viewed and edited.
- A better way to deal with images shared in PDFs is to convert the PDF to JPG or PNG file.
PDF or Portable Document Format is a widely used file format for presenting documents. In addition to its primary use as a document format, PDF is sometimes also used for images.
However, sharing documents—the ones with images—or image files in the PDF format isn’t wise, as a PDF file is considerably larger in size than a regular JPG or PNG file and requires a PDF viewer to be viewed or edited.
So unless you specifically need to have an image in PDF format, your best bet is to convert it into one of the popular image formats, like JPG or PNG.
In this guide, we’ll demonstrate all the different ways to convert PDF to JPG or PNG on your Windows PC.
How to Convert PDF to JPG or PNG Format on Windows
Converting a PDF file to a JPEG file or PNG file can be done in a few different ways. Follow along as we discuss these methods in detail below.
1. Convert PDF to Image Files Online
The easiest way to convert PDF to an image file on Windows is to use an online converter. While there are various online PDF conversion tools out there, the one we’ll be demonstrating in this guide is Adobe’s online PDF tool.
It’s called Adobe Acrobat online, and not only does it let you convert your PDF documents into JPEG (or JPG) files, but it also allows you to convert them into other popular image file formats such as PNG and TIFF.
Follow the instructions below to get started:
- Open a web browser and head over to Adobe Acrobat online.
- Click on Sign in at the top right corner and enter your Adobe login credentials. In case you don’t have one, you can either sign up or continue to log in using your Google, Facebook, or Apple account.
- Click on the Select a file button in the Convert PDF to JPG box, and using the file explorer, navigate to the file you wish to convert, select it, and hit Upload.
- Wait for the PDF file to upload, and then click on the dropdown button below Convert to and select your desired output image format. You can also click on the dropdown below Image quality to set the output quality.
- Based on which format you choose, click on the Convert to X button, where X is the image file format you chose in the previous step.
Now, depending on the size of your PDF file, Adobe Acrobat will now take a while to convert your PDF. Once it finishes the conversion, your file will be ready to download.
To view it, click on the Download button. The downloaded file will then be saved to the Downloads folder in the ZIP file format, where you’ll need to unzip it to get your original JPG, PNG, or TIFF file.
To do this, open the download folder on your PC, right-click on the file, and select Open with > WinRAR archiver (or any other extraction utility). Or, you can right-click on the file and select Extract All.
Although Adobe Acrobat online converts PDFs well, if you want to check out some other online converters, you can try the following ones:
Smallpdf: converts PDFs to JPG files
PDFtoImage: converts PDFs to JPG files and PNG files
PDF Converter: converts PDFs into JPG files and PNG files
Online2PDF: converts PDFs into JPG files and PNG files
2. Convert PDF to Image Files Using Desktop PDF Editors
Dedicated desktop PDF conversion software are another convenient way to convert PDFs to images. One of the advantages of using them is that you get a few additional features that are otherwise not available online PDF converters.
On Windows, you’ll find plenty of PDF editing programs—both paid and free. However, for the purpose of this guide, we’ll demonstrate the steps with the Free PDF Converter available on the Microsoft Store.
With the tool installed, follow the steps below to convert PDF to JPG or PNG:
Download: Free PDF Converter
- Launch Free PDF Converter.
- Depending on which format you want to convert the PDF into, choose from the available utilities. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll use PDF to JPEG.
- Click on the Add Files button at the top and select the PDF file you wish to convert.
- With the file selected, click on the button next to Save Path and pick your destination folder.
- Click on the dropdown button next to Save As and confirm that the selected output is correct.
- Hit the Start button to start the conversion process.
Once the conversion is complete, the JPG or PNG file will be saved to your specified folder on the PC.
Much like Free PDF Converter, there are several other PDF converters for Windows that you can use to convert your PDFs into images. Some of these tools even offer advanced features, wherein you can set the file compression or image quality before converting the PDF file.
Below are some of the best PDF editing tools for Windows:
- Icecream PDF converter: converts PDFs to JPG files, PNG files, and TIFF files
- EaseUS PDF Editor: converts PDFs to JPG files, PNG files, and TIFF files
- Adobe Acrobat DC: converts PDFs to JPG files, PNG files, and TIFF files
- PDFelement: converts PDFs to JPG files, PNG files, TIFF files, and BMP files
- PDFescape: converts PDFs to JPG files and PNG files
3. Convert PDF to Image Files Using Screenshots
Screenshotting is nifty system functionality that lets you capture the contents displayed on the screen, be it from a video, a GIF, or any other file or document.
On Windows, you can save captured screenshots in JPEG, PNG, or GIF file formats. And that’s what we’ll be exploiting to convert (more like transform) our PDF document into an image file.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Open the PDF document you wish to convert into an image.
- Make sure the PDF content (image) in the PDF is well-centered on the screen and zoomed to the right size.
- Press the print screen (PrtScr) button to bring up the Snipping Tool. Or you can click Start and launch Snipping Tool from there.
- Click on the Rectangular Snip (or any other option) and draw an outline around the image you want to capture to take its screenshot. If you launch Snipping Tool from the Start menu, you need to first click on the New button to get these snipping options.
- Tap on the Snipping Tool notification at the bottom-right corner.
- Press the Ctrl+s keyboard shortcut to bring up the save menu.
- Give a name to the screenshot.
- Click on the dropdown button next to Save as type and select an output file format for the screenshot.
- Pick a destination folder to save the captured screenshot.
- Hit the Save button to save it.
You should have now successfully captured the image in the PDF file as a JPG or PNG file on your PC, with your original PDF file still intact and unchanged.
Converting PDFs to Images on Windows Simplified
All of the methods listed above offer a convenient way to convert PDF to JPG or PNG file formats on Windows. In our opinion, online PDF conversion tools work well for this operation and should suffice the needs of most users.
However, if you want more control over the output of the converted PDF files, desktop PDF conversion tools are the way to go.
