What you should know
PDF to JPG turns each page of a document into an image. It is useful for posting a page on a social network, inserting it into a document that only accepts images, sending it through a messaging app or making a thumbnail.
FileXvert draws each page with pdf.js, Firefox's PDF rendering engine, at 144 dpi. A one-page PDF gives one image; a multi-page PDF gives a ZIP archive containing one numbered image per page.
Strengths
- Faithful rendering of the page, fonts, images and drawings included
- One image per page, numbered in document order
- 144 dpi resolution: an A4 page gives a 1191 × 1684 pixel image
- The PDF is never sent to a server
Limitations to know
- Text becomes an image: it can no longer be selected or edited
- An A4 page as JPG weighs more than the same page as a text PDF
- Limited to 300 pages per conversion, so as not to exhaust the tab's memory
- Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first
When to use it
Choose JPG to share a page as an image: social network, presentation, messaging. Prefer PNG for a page of text or a diagram, whose edges will stay perfectly sharp.
Quality, size and compatibility
At 144 dpi, the text of an A4 page stays sharp on screen and readable in ordinary printing. The JPEG is saved at quality 90: flat text areas may show slight halos when zooming in, which PNG avoids at the cost of a heavier file.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the result a ZIP file?
- Because the PDF has several pages: each becomes an image, and the archive gathers them, numbered in order. A one-page PDF gives an image directly.
- JPG or PNG for a page of text?
- PNG: it is lossless, so letters stay perfectly sharp. JPG is better for pages full of photos, where it is much lighter.