JPG to PDF and PNG to PDF: what happens to your images
When you convert a JPG to PDF here, the JPEG data is embedded in the PDF as is. Nothing is recompressed, so the photo on the page has exactly the quality of the file you added. PNG images are embedded losslessly as well, which keeps text in screenshots and scans sharp. WebP images, which PDF can't hold directly, are converted to PNG first.
Each page is sized to its image. A landscape photo makes a landscape page and a tall phone screenshot makes a tall page, so nothing is cropped, stretched or shrunk onto a fixed sheet.
| You add | In the PDF | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| JPG / JPEG | Embedded as JPEG | Identical to your file |
| PNG | Embedded as PNG | Lossless |
| WebP | Converted to PNG, then embedded | Lossless from the decoded image |
Converting a picture to PDF on iPhone, Android and Windows
Phones and computers have built-in ways to make a PDF from a photo, but they're clumsy for more than one picture. On iPhone you can open a photo, tap Share → Print and pinch out on the preview to get a PDF. On Windows you can print a picture to "Microsoft Print to PDF". On Android, the Print option offers Save as PDF. Both work one image at a time, add margins, and fit everything onto letter or A4 paper.
This image to PDF converter is quicker for a batch: select all the photos at once, reorder them, and download one file. It runs in the mobile browser, so you can go from camera roll to PDF without installing an app.
Image to PDF tips for a smaller, cleaner file
The PDF is roughly the size of the images you put in, so a dozen 12-megapixel photos make a big file. If an upload form limits the size:
- Shrink the photos first with the Image Compressor or Image Resizer, then build the PDF.
- Crop away tables, floors and fingers around photographed documents with the Image Cropper.
- When printing, choose Fit to page so each image scales to your paper size.
