Method 1: Mac — Preview (Built-In, Free)

  1. 1

    Open the PDF in Preview

    Double-click the PDF file to open it in Preview (Mac’s default PDF viewer).

  2. 2

    File → Export → choose JPEG

    Click File in the menu bar → Export. Change the Format dropdown from PDF to JPEG. Set quality (85% or higher for good quality). Choose a save location. Click Save. If the PDF has multiple pages, export each page individually by navigating to it first, or use Export All Pages.

Method 2: Online — pdf2jpg.net or ilovepdf.com (Free)

  1. 3

    Go to pdf2jpg.net or ilovepdf.com/pdf_to_jpg

    Upload your PDF file. Choose the quality (high/medium/low). Click Convert. Download the JPG file(s) — one image per PDF page, delivered as a ZIP if the PDF has multiple pages. Free, no account required. For sensitive documents, use a local method instead.

Method 3: Windows — Microsoft Photos or Paint

Open the PDF in any browser (Chrome, Edge). Press Ctrl+P to print. Select Microsoft Print to PDF — this creates a PDF but not a JPG. For JPG specifically: take a screenshot of each page (Windows key + Shift + S), then save the screenshot as JPG. Or use the free IrfanView app — open the PDF and File → Save As → JPG.

Method 4: Adobe Acrobat Reader (Free) on Any Platform

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader → Tools → Export PDF → Image → JPEG. Note: the full export feature requires an Acrobat subscription, but the free Reader does allow exporting individual pages as images in some versions.

For high-quality resultsWhen using online converters, choose the highest quality setting. PDF text and vector graphics converted to JPG at low quality become blurry and pixelated. 300 DPI is the standard for print-quality output; 150 DPI is sufficient for screen display.

Frequently Asked Questions

JPG is a lossy format so some quality is lost, especially for sharp text and line art. For documents with text, PNG is a better format than JPG as it is lossless. If you need to share an image of a PDF document, use PNG at 150–300 DPI for the sharpest result. Use JPG for photos embedded in PDFs where the slight quality reduction is not visible.
ilovepdf.com and pdf2jpg.net both convert all pages at once and deliver them as a ZIP file. Preview on Mac: use File → Export All Pages. Online tools are the simplest option for multi-page PDFs.