Extract Images from PDF
Extract images from a PDF: the pictures on its pages are saved as JPG, PNG or JPEG 2000 files, in a ZIP when there is more than one.
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How to use Extract Images from PDF
Key features of Extract Images from PDF
A JPEG stored in the PDF is saved exactly as it is inside the file, so nothing is recompressed or lost. JPEG 2000 images are saved the same way, as .jp2 or, when the PDF holds only the bare codestream, as .j2k.
Other images are decoded here, including grey, colour, CMYK, palette, 1-bit and 16-bit pictures, and saved as lossless PNG. A soft mask, a stencil mask or a colour key becomes the PNG's transparency.
The PDF is read by JavaScript in your browser with pdf-lib, and the ZIP is built with JSZip on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.
About Extract Images from PDF
A PDF stores each photo, logo or scan as an image object, separate from the text. Extract Images reads what every page draws, including the forms and fill patterns a page uses and images written inline in the page content, and saves each image once, even when several pages draw it. An image that is still in the file but that no page draws is not exported. Files are named after the first page that draws them, such as page-3-image-2.jpg, and packed into one ZIP.
The images come out at the resolution stored in the PDF, which is often not the size you see on the page: a photo may be stored large and scaled down, or a small picture scaled up. Text, lines and shapes drawn as vectors are not images and are not extracted. Nor are black-and-white fax encodings (JBIG2 and CCITT, common in scanned documents), stencil masks drawn on their own, special colour spaces such as spot colours, and unusual encodings, which the card counts as left out. To save whole pages as pictures instead, use PDF to PNG or PDF to JPG.
When to use Extract Images from PDF
A supplier sent a product catalogue as a PDF and you need the photos for your shop. Extract them and you get the pictures at the resolution stored in the file, with the JPEGs unchanged, instead of screenshots.
You are reusing figures from a report or a paper. Charts saved as pictures come out as separate files you can place in a slide deck; charts drawn as vectors do not, and PDF to PNG renders them with their page instead.
A letterhead PDF has a logo with a transparent background. It comes out as a PNG that keeps its transparency, ready to place on another document with Add Image to PDF.
To save whole pages rather than the pictures on them, use PDF to JPG. To take pages out as a new PDF, use Extract Pages.
Tips and troubleshooting
- Scanned documents often store each page as one image. Extracting then gives one picture per page at the scan's own resolution, unless the scan uses JBIG2 or CCITT, which are left out.
- An image can come out turned or mirrored compared with the page, because the page may rotate or flip it when drawing it. The file is saved the way it is stored.
- A PDF can hold icons, bullets and thin lines by the dozen, which is why the small-image box starts ticked. Clear it to extract everything.
- CMYK images that are not JPEGs are converted to RGB with a simple formula, so print colours can look a little different on screen. A CMYK JPEG is saved as stored and keeps its CMYK data.
- A JPEG that carries a mask, or that the PDF inverts when it draws it, is saved as PNG so that it looks as it does on the page. The PNG is larger than the JPEG was.
- When nothing can be extracted, you get "No images were found in this PDF." or "No images could be extracted from this PDF." with the list of what was left out, rather than an empty ZIP.
- "1 image was saved without its transparency." in the result means a mask could not be used: a JPEG 2000 image is copied as it is, without its separate mask, and a mask stored in a fax encoding cannot be read here.
- Browsers cannot display JPEG 2000, so a single .jp2 or .j2k result has no preview. Open it in an image editor.
- Pictures inside comments or stamps (annotations) are not extracted, and neither are letters that a font stores as small bitmaps.
- An encrypted file stops with "This PDF is encrypted, even if it opens without a password." Remove the protection with Unlock PDF first.
How Extract Images from PDF works in your browser
pdf-lib opens the file, and the tool reads each page's content stream, its list of drawing instructions. It notes every image the page draws, follows the forms and tiling patterns the page uses, whose streams are read the same way, and picks up inline images. An image used as another image's soft mask or mask is not listed on its own, and an image drawn on several pages is kept once. No image is decoded until you click Extract Images; the card only reads each image's dictionary for its size, encoding and colour space.
A JPEG or JPEG 2000 image is copied out byte for byte, after any Flate or ASCII filter wrapped around it is undone. Any other image is decoded here: its filters are undone (Flate, LZW, run-length and the ASCII encodings), then any PNG or TIFF predictor, and its samples of 1 to 16 bits become RGBA pixels, with Decode arrays applied, palette and CMYK colours converted and a mask used as alpha. An opaque 8-bit image is saved as PNG through a canvas. An image with transparency or 16-bit samples is written by a small PNG encoder in the page, because a canvas rounds colours under transparency and holds only 8 bits. JSZip packs the files into one ZIP. The page loads pdf-lib and JSZip from cdnjs.cloudflare.com when it opens, and, apart from Google Analytics while it is switched on, that is the only network request involved.
Frequently asked questions
Are the images extracted at full quality?
Yes, at the quality stored in the PDF. JPEG and JPEG 2000 images are copied out exactly as they are in the file, and other images are saved as lossless PNG, with 16 bits per channel where the PDF has them. No tool can add detail the PDF does not contain.
Why is an image smaller or larger than it looks on the page?
A PDF can scale an image when it draws it. You get the image at the size it is stored, not the size it is shown.
Why were no images found?
The PDF may contain no pictures: text and vector drawings are not images. Scans stored with JBIG2 or CCITT encoding are left out too, and so are pictures inside comments and stamps. PDF to PNG saves whole pages as pictures in those cases.
Can I extract images from a scanned PDF?
Often, yes: each scanned page is usually one image, and you get it at the scan's resolution. Scans stored in the black-and-white JBIG2 or CCITT encodings are left out; use PDF to PNG for those.
Is transparency kept?
Usually. An image with a soft mask, a stencil mask or a colour key is saved as PNG with the mask as its alpha channel, so transparent areas stay transparent. A JPEG 2000 image is copied without its separate mask, and the result says so.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The images are read and saved by JavaScript in your browser, and the ZIP is built on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.
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