Convert specific PDF pages to JPG, and skip the rest

How to type the pages

The Pages box takes page numbers and ranges separated by commas. Once a file is in, the hint under it shows the page count (“All, or 2, 5-7 of 48”), so you know where the document ends. We ran each of these through the converter’s own range reader on a 48-page file:

You type	Pages converted	Note
all (or leave it empty)	1 to 48	the default
7	7	1 file, no zip
2, 5-7	2, 5, 6, 7	the most common case
40-	40 to 48	open end means “to the last page”
-3	1, 2, 3	open start means “from page 1”
45-50	45 to 48	runs past the end, stops at 48
7, 2	7, then 2	drawn in the order you type, each once
7-5	7, 6, 5	written high to low, drawn in that order
60	none	“No pages to draw.”

Typing a page twice converts it once. Spaces are ignored, so 2,5-7 and 2, 5 - 7 are the same.

Convert 1 page out of a long report

The quickest path from a 48-page report to the 1 chart you need:

1. Find the page in your viewer and note the number the viewer shows for it, not the one printed in the footer (more on that below).
2. Drop the PDF on the tool above. It opens in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
3. Type the page number in Pages, for example 31.
4. Pick the resolution for where the image goes next. Resolution is in dots per inch; an A4 page becomes:

Resolution	A4 page in pixels	Good for
72	595 x 842	a thumbnail, a chat preview
150	1240 x 1754	a slide, an email, a web page
300	2480 x 3508	print, zooming in on detail
600	3363 x 4756	the most the tool draws on A4

5. Press Make the images. One page downloads as a JPG named after the file and page, report-31.jpg.

The 600 row is not a typo. The converter draws at most 16 million pixels per page, so a full A4 page at 600 dpi comes out at 407 dpi, and the result says so; a smaller page, such as a receipt or an A6 card, gets the full 600. For a chart you will paste into a slide, 150 is plenty. If the chart sits in a corner of the page, Crop PDF can cut the page down to it first, and the image then holds only the chart.

JPG or PNG? For a page that is mostly text, lines and flat colour, PDF to PNG is often smaller as well as sharper: on our test invoice at 150 dpi, the PNG was 157 KB and the JPG 167 KB. For photos and scans, JPG is far smaller.

PDF to PNGLossless, with a transparent background if you want one. Free, runs on your device.Open

What the files are called

Each image is named after the PDF and its page number, padded to the length of the page count so files sort in page order everywhere. From a 48-page report.pdf with 2, 5-7:

• report-jpg.zip, holding
• report-02.jpg, report-05.jpg, report-06.jpg, report-07.jpg

Page 7 stays report-07 however many pages you skip, so you can always tell which page a file came from. If you would rather not deal with a zip (on a phone, say), switch Several pages to “as separate files”: the result then lists every image with its own Download button.

Large files are fine

The converter draws 1 page at a time and lets it go before the next, so it needs memory for 1 page, not for the whole file. On our 500-page test file, converting 5 pages scattered through it (1, 100, 250, 400, 500) took 1.5 seconds on a mid-range laptop; all 500 pages at 72 dpi took 30 seconds. The pages you skip are never drawn, so they cost almost nothing.

If a file is too big for the browser to open at all, the tool says so in numbers (“this browser has about … to work with”) instead of failing without a word.

Pages as images, or as a smaller PDF?

Ask what the pages are for. If they go into a slide, a chat or a web page, you want images, and this is the tool. If someone needs to read, print or search those pages, you want a PDF of just those pages: Extract pages takes the same kind of range and keeps the text as text, selectable and searchable, usually in a much smaller file than the images.

Extract pagesThe same ranges, as a new PDF that keeps the text. Free, runs on your device.Open

Extract pages is also the way to “every second page” and other patterns: build the PDF of the pages you want (or reorder them in Organise pages), then convert that file with Pages on all.

The honest part: page numbers that lie

The Pages box counts the pages of the file: the first page in the file is 1, cover and contents included. The number printed at the bottom of a page is part of the design. Reports often start their printed numbers after a cover and 2 pages of contents, or number the front pages i, ii, iii. So the page with “3” in its footer can be page 5 of the file.

Trust the viewer, not the footer. PDF viewers show the file’s own page number in their toolbar (“5 of 48”). Type the number the viewer counts, and if the first image is not the page you expected, the file name tells you which page you got.

What this tool does not do: it has no thumbnail grid to tick pages, so pages are typed, and it has no syntax for steps such as “every other page”. For a quick look at what each page holds before you choose, open the file in your usual viewer side by side. For the bigger picture on DPI, formats and when to extract the original photos instead of drawing the page, see PDF to images.