How to convert an image to PDF on your Mac

For one picture, open it in Preview, choose File, Export, and set Format to PDF. For several pictures in one PDF, select them in Finder in the order you want, Control-click, and choose Quick Actions, Create PDF. Both are free, built into your Mac, and work for JPG, PNG and HEIC alike.

Koi's Shift wheel turns a picture into a PDF in a drag, and its PDF wheel merges PDFs. We make Koi, so read that part with that in mind. Apple's steps come from its own guides, checked October 21, 2026.

From Apple's guide to converting image file types:

1. Open the picture in Preview.
2. Choose File, then Export.
3. Click the Format pop-up menu and choose PDF.
4. If you like, apply a Quartz filter, or encrypt the PDF so it needs a password to open.
5. Name it, pick a folder, and click Save.

Preview's File menu also has Export as PDF, which goes straight to a PDF. A third way works from any app that prints: choose File, Print, then Save as PDF from the PDF menu at the bottom of the print window. Printing lets you pick a paper size, like A4 or US Letter, which Export doesn't.

This is the one people search for most: a set of photos of a document, or receipts, into a single PDF. From Apple's Mac User Guide:

1. In Finder or on your desktop, select the pictures one by one, in the order you want the pages. The PDF follows the order you select them in.
2. Control-click the selection and choose Quick Actions, then Create PDF.
3. The PDF is made right there, named after the first file you selected.

Or select the files and click Create PDF at the bottom of the Preview pane (choose View, Show Preview if it's hidden). Want to reorder or remove a page after? Open the PDF in Preview and drag the thumbnails in the sidebar.

1. Start dragging the picture: a JPG, PNG, HEIC or any picture your Mac opens.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. A wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop it on Convert. The wheel turns into a wheel of formats.
4. Click PDF. “Photo.pdf” is saved beside the picture and shows in Finder.

• The PDF is one page, the same size as the picture. It's not fitted to A4 or Letter.
• Convert works on one picture at a time. Drag several and only the first is converted.
• The picture is never touched, and nothing is uploaded.

To end up with one PDF from several pictures in Koi, convert each, then drag all the PDFs with Shift held and drop them on Merge. Put them in order and save one file. The Finder way above is quicker for that, and free. Koi's Merge is more useful when the pages come from PDFs you already have: see how to merge PDFs on Mac.

Photos of pages often come out in the wrong order or sideways. In Preview, open the PDF, show the sidebar with thumbnails, and drag pages into place. Rotate Left and Rotate Right turn a page. To lock the PDF, export it again from Preview (File, Export) and turn on the option to encrypt it with a password, as Apple's guide describes.

Koi's PDF wheel has Organize for the same job: drag the PDF with Shift held, drop it on Organize, then drag pages into a new order, turn them, copy them or take them out. It saves a copy beside the original. Koi doesn't add passwords, so use Preview for that.

“Not stated” means Apple's guide doesn't say. When the paper size matters, use File, Print, Save as PDF, where you pick it.

• A picture in a PDF is still a picture: you can't search or copy its words. To get them out, use a tool that reads them, like Koi's PDF Convert to text or Markdown, which reads a scanned PDF with your Mac's text recognition.
• Photos of documents make big PDFs. Shrink it before you email it or upload it to a form.
• A phone photo of a page has its own size, not A4. If the other side will print it, use Print, Save as PDF and pick the paper size.
• Selection order matters in Finder. Command-click the files one by one in page order, rather than dragging a box round them.
• HEIC works too. Preview, Finder and Koi all read iPhone photos, so there's no need to convert to JPG first.

For the size, see how to compress a PDF on Mac, or shrink the pictures first with how to compress an image. Going the other way, from a Word file, see how to convert Word to PDF on Mac.

• Several pictures into one PDF: Finder's Create PDF. Free and quick.
• One picture, with a password: Preview, File, Export.
• A PDF on A4 or Letter paper: File, Print, Save as PDF.
• You already use Koi's Shift wheel to crop or convert pictures: Convert, then PDF, without opening anything.

The Shift wheel is part of Koi, on every plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. See the plans. For turning pictures into a PDF alone, the free Finder and Preview ways are enough.