How to use PDF to PNG
- 1Drop in a PDF — every page will be converted
- 2Choose a resolution: Screen, High or Print
- 3Each page renders to a canvas and is encoded losslessly
- 4Check the pixel dimensions under each page
- 5Download the pages you need
What PDF to PNG does
PNG stores exactly the pixels it is given. There is no quality setting because nothing is discarded — the compression is the same kind used by ZIP, finding repetition rather than deciding what you will not notice. Reopening a PNG gives back the identical image that was saved.
For pages rendered from a PDF that is a good match, because most PDFs are mainly text and line art. Those are made of large flat areas and hard edges: flat areas are exactly what lossless compression handles best, and hard edges are exactly what lossy compression handles worst. The result is often both cleaner and smaller than the JPEG equivalent.
When to use it
- Diagrams and charts for a document
- A figure lifted from a report keeps its crisp lines and flat fills. Placing a JPEG of the same figure into a slide deck shows visible fringing around every line.
- Pages with a transparent background
- PNG carries an alpha channel, so a page element that was transparent stays transparent rather than being flattened onto white.
- Anything that will be edited afterwards
- Lossless output means later crops and adjustments start from the original pixels. Editing a JPEG compounds its artefacts every time it is saved again.
- Screenshots of a form or table
- Ruled lines and small type survive intact, which matters when the point of the image is that someone can read the numbers.
PDF to PNG settings explained
- Screen (72 dpi)
- The page's nominal size — around 595 × 842 pixels for A4. Because PNG adds no artefacts, small text at this resolution is limited by pixel count alone rather than by compression as well.
- High (144 dpi)
- Double the linear resolution, four times the pixels, about 1191 × 1684 for A4. The right default for text pages that need to be readable on screen.
- Print (216 dpi)
- Triple linear, nine times the pixels, around 1786 × 2526 for A4. Worth it for printing or for pages with very small type, at a substantial cost in file size.
- No quality setting
- PNG is lossless, so there is nothing to trade. Every pixel the renderer produced is stored exactly. File size is decided by the resolution and by how much detail the page contains.
- Transparency
- The alpha channel is preserved, so transparent areas of a page stay transparent instead of being composited onto a white background.
PNG or JPG for a PDF page
| Page content | Better format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Body text | PNG | No ringing around character edges |
| Diagrams, charts, line art | PNG | Flat colour compresses well and stays clean |
| Photographs | JPG | PNG stores photographic noise inefficiently |
| Scanned pages | JPG | A scan is a photograph of paper |
| Anything transparent | PNG | JPG has no alpha channel |
Limits and what to expect
- PNG files of photographic pages are much larger than the JPG equivalent — often several times.
- The text becomes pixels, so nothing in the output is selectable or searchable.
- Rendering runs page by page in the browser, and cost rises with the square of the resolution.
- Every page is converted; this tool has no page selection.
- Documents requiring a password to open cannot be read; permission-restricted ones are fine.
Troubleshooting
- The files are much bigger than I expected
- The pages are probably photographs or scans. PNG stores photographic detail without discarding anything, which is inefficient for that kind of content. Use the JPG version of this tool for scanned pages — it is what JPEG was designed for.
- Small text is still hard to read
- At Screen resolution an A4 page is only about 595 pixels wide, so 10-point type is a handful of pixels tall. That is a resolution limit, not a compression one — move up to High or Print.
- Rendering is slow
- Each page is drawn on your own device, and Print resolution is nine times the work of Screen. Extract the pages you need into a smaller PDF first, or drop to High.
- I expected a transparent background but got white
- The page itself has an opaque white background — most PDFs do. PNG preserves transparency where it exists but cannot invent it. Remove the background afterwards if you need the content isolated.
Your files and your privacy
Every page is rendered by pdf.js inside your browser tab and encoded to PNG on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and no intermediate image is stored anywhere. The tool works with the network disconnected once the page has loaded, which is the simplest way to confirm it.
What to use next
FAQ
Is PNG better than JPG for PDF pages?
For text, diagrams and line art, yes — PNG is lossless, so character edges stay perfectly sharp, and flat areas compress efficiently. For scanned pages and photographs, JPG is better: those are photographic content, which PNG stores inefficiently and JPEG was designed for.
Why is there no quality setting?
Because PNG does not discard anything. Its compression finds repetition rather than deciding what you will not notice, so there is no quality to trade against size. File size follows the resolution you choose and how detailed the page is.
What resolution should I use?
High (144 dpi) for most purposes — an A4 page becomes about 1191 × 1684 pixels, comfortable to read on screen. Print (216 dpi) if the image will be printed or the type is very small. Screen (72 dpi) only for thumbnails.
Does PNG keep transparency from the PDF?
Yes, PNG has an alpha channel and it is preserved. Most PDF pages have an opaque white background, though, so you will usually get white unless the page genuinely had transparent regions.
Will the text be searchable in the PNG?
No. Rendering converts the text layer into pixels, so nothing in the image can be selected or searched. Keep the original PDF for that, or run the images through OCR elsewhere.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Rendering and encoding happen entirely inside your browser on your own device, with no request to any server.