PDF to JPG or PNG: which one to choose

Updated October 1, 2026

PDF to JPG and PDF to PNG do the same job: they draw every page of a PDF as a picture and put the pictures in a ZIP. The only difference is how each picture is stored. JPG leaves out detail the eye barely notices to keep files small; PNG keeps every pixel. Which is better depends on what is on the page.

What the two tools have in common

Both render each page with pdf.js at twice its nominal size, about 144 dots per inch, so an A4 page becomes an image of about 1190 by 1684 pixels. Every page is painted white first, so neither format keeps a transparent background. Every page is converted, with no page range; to convert only some pages, take them out first with Extract Pages. The images are named page_1, page_2 and so on without leading zeros, and arrive in one ZIP named after your PDF, ending in _images.zip for JPG and _png.zip for PNG.

The PDF to JPG result card: Converted 3 pages to JPG images, with a ZIP file to download
PDF to JPG converts every page as soon as the file is chosen and puts the pictures in one ZIP.

Measured sizes

The three test files from the guide to compressing a PDF to a specific size were rendered at the tools' settings (twice the page size, JPEG at quality 92) on September 30, 2026. Average size of one A4 page:

PageJPGPNG
Text statement, dense text in a table365 KB357 KB
Photo brochure, a photo above text488 KB1.63 MB
Colour scan of a letter, 300 dpi504 KB2.07 MB

Sizes count 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, as the tools show them. For photos and scans, PNG was three to four times larger; for plain text, it was slightly smaller than JPG.

Choose JPG when

  • The pages are mostly photos or scans. JPG made them three to four times smaller than PNG in the test.
  • The images go into an email, a chat or a web page, where size matters more than the last bit of sharpness.
  • The image will be viewed, not edited: every time a JPG is saved again, it loses a little more.

Choose PNG when

  • The page is text, a table, a diagram or a screenshot. PNG keeps the edges crisp, and for the text page in the test it was even a little smaller than JPG.
  • You will edit the image afterwards or cut parts out of it: PNG can be saved again without losing quality.
  • Small print has to stay readable when someone zooms in.

When you want the pictures, not the pages

Both tools take a picture of each whole page. If you need the photos or logos inside a PDF at their own resolution, use Extract Images instead: it saves each picture the pages draw, JPEG and JPEG 2000 byte for byte and the rest as PNG. A photo shown small on the page but stored large comes out sharper that way than in any page render.

If the images are too large

The resolution is fixed at twice the page size, and there is no quality setting. To make the files smaller afterwards, Compress Images can shrink and re-encode them. The pages of a long document are all held in memory until the ZIP is built, so a PDF with hundreds of pages is safer converted in parts.

Frequently asked questions

Is PNG always better quality than JPG?

PNG keeps every pixel, so it never adds blur or blocky edges. For photos the difference is hard to see at quality 92, and the JPG is much smaller.

Why do the pages come out with a white background?

Both tools paint every page white before drawing it, so a page without a background of its own comes out white in either format. Neither keeps transparency.

Can I choose the resolution?

Not in these tools. Pages are always drawn at twice their nominal size, about 144 dots per inch. Compress Images can make the results smaller afterwards.

Sources

  • PDF.js (Mozilla): the library that parses and renders PDF pages with web standards.

Tools used in this guide

More guides

Or see all guides and how this site compares with other PDF services.