Choosing a picture format for PDF pages
Turning a page into a picture is the easy part. Choosing what kind of picture is where people get stuck, because the formats differ less in how the page looks than in where the file will open and how large it is. This page sorts the choices by the job, and says what every one of them gives up compared with the PDF.
Updated
Which tool you need
A page for a chat, an email or a social post
JPG. It opens on every phone, computer and website, and it stays small enough to send without a second thought.
A page of text, a chart or a diagram
PNG, which PDF to PNG also makes on a page of its own. It keeps every pixel, so lettering and thin lines stay sharp.
A website that needs the lightest file
WebP, or AVIF for lighter still. AVIF takes noticeably longer to make and some older programs cannot open it, so WebP is the safer of the two.
A records system, an archive or a print shop
TIFF. It is lossless and it is the format document and imaging software tends to ask for. Expect large files.
Older software that insists on BMP or GIF
Give it the one it asks for. BMP is uncompressed and very large; GIF keeps the shapes but only 256 colors, which suits text and is harsh on photographs.
Someone needs to copy the words out
A picture will not let them. Send the PDF, or only the pages they need as a smaller PDF with Extract PDF Pages.
Lossy and lossless, and where it shows
JPG, WebP and AVIF discard detail the eye is unlikely to miss, which is how they stay small, and the quality setting decides how much goes. On a photograph you will rarely see it; on black text against white, the lower settings can leave a faint haze around the letters.
PNG, TIFF and BMP keep what was drawn, and GIF keeps the shapes in only 256 colors. PNG and TIFF keep it exactly and can keep the background see-through; GIF and BMP always draw on white, and GIF's small palette makes it a format for pages of text rather than pages of pictures.
Where the file has to open
JPG and PNG open everywhere. WebP opens in every current browser, though some older desktop programs still do not read it. AVIF is newer again, which makes it a format for a website you control rather than for an attachment.
TIFF is read by document and imaging software more than by browsers, which suits an archive and not a chat. BMP is there for the program that will accept nothing else.
Why HEIC is not offered
HEIC is the format an iPhone saves its photos in, so it is a fair thing to look for. Every way of writing it depends on the HEVC video codec, whose encoders and patents this site's license rules do not allow, so it is left out rather than offered through a service that would need your file.
For a small picture an iPhone opens without complaint, choose JPG. For the smallest file that only has to work in a browser, choose AVIF.
What to know before you start
- No HEIC output, for the license reason above.
- Pages are drawn, not taken apart: the pictures stored inside a PDF do not come out as their own files.
- A PDF behind a password has to be unlocked with Unlock PDF before its pages can be drawn.
- The AVIF encoder, and Safari's WebP one, is fetched the first time you pick it, so that one conversion needs a connection.
- Your PDF is never uploaded. Every page is drawn and converted in your browser and saved on your device.