What you should know
PDF to PNG turns each page of a document into an image: to insert it into a presentation, post it on social media or send it to someone without a PDF reader. PNG, being lossless, keeps text and lines perfectly crisp.
Pages are drawn by pdf.js, Firefox's display engine, at 144 dpi. A single-page PDF gives one image; a multi-page PDF gives a ZIP archive of numbered images (page-001, page-002…).
Strengths
- Perfectly crisp text and lines thanks to the lossless format
- One image per page, numbered in order
- Rendered at 144 dpi, sharp on screen and for everyday printing
- Local conversion: the document is sent nowhere
Limitations to know
- Text becomes an image and is no longer selectable
- PNGs of photographic pages are heavy
- Limit of 300 pages per conversion
- The rendering resolution cannot be adjusted
When to use it
Choose PNG for pages made of text, tables or diagrams: they stay sharp and readable. For a photo-rich brochure, PDF to JPG produces much lighter files for an equivalent look.
Quality, size and compatibility
At 144 dpi an A4 page becomes an image of roughly 1,190 × 1,684 pixels: comfortable on screen and enough for ordinary printing. Expect a few hundred KB per page of text, more for an illustrated page.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did I get a ZIP file?
- Because the PDF has several pages: each becomes an image, and the images are bundled into a ZIP archive for a single download. A one-page PDF gives a PNG directly.
- Should I choose PNG or JPG?
- PNG for text and diagrams, which it keeps perfectly sharp; JPG for photographic pages, which come out much lighter with comparable visual quality.