Why convert PDF to PNG?
When you convert PDF to PNG, every pixel is stored exactly as it was drawn. JPEG throws away detail to save space, and the loss shows most around sharp edges: the outline of letters, thin table borders, lines in a chart. PNG has none of those artefacts. That makes it the better choice for pages that are mostly text or graphics, and for images you will annotate, crop or zoom into later.
PNG or JPG?
| PNG | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy, adjustable quality |
| Text and line art | Perfectly sharp | Slight blur around edges |
| Photos | Large files | Much smaller files |
| Best for | Documents, slides, diagrams, screenshots | Photo-heavy pages, brochures |
Both are one click apart: switch the format above the button. For photo-heavy pages, PDF to JPG gives far smaller files.
Resolution and file size
A PDF page is measured in points (1/72 inch), and the DPI setting decides how many pixels each point becomes. An A4 page is 1240 × 1754 pixels at 150 DPI and 2480 × 3508 at 300 DPI. Doubling the DPI quadruples the pixels, and a text page at 300 DPI can be a few megabytes as PNG. Use 150 DPI for screens and 300 DPI for print. If a page is very large, such as a poster, it is scaled down automatically to stay within what a browser can draw.
Common uses
- Slides and documentation: put a diagram or table from a PDF into a presentation, wiki or README without blurry edges.
- Annotating: mark up a page in an image editor, where PNG keeps quality through repeated saves.
- Websites: show a crisp preview of a document page next to the download link.
- Bug reports and support tickets: attach the exact page that is wrong as an image anyone can open.
Background
Pages are rendered on a white background, as they look on paper and in every PDF viewer. If you need a transparent background, for example a logo from a PDF, open the PNG in an image editor and remove the white there.
Privacy
The PDF is rendered by your browser with pdf.js, so the document is never uploaded. To turn images back into a document, use PNG to PDF.