How to convert a PDF to JPG or PNG on your Mac

Your Mac turns a PDF into a JPG or PNG without any website. Preview's Export saves a page as a picture. Automator, also built in, can draw every page of a PDF as a picture. Koi does every page in one drag, at 200 pixels to an inch, into a folder beside the PDF.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. Preview's steps come from Apple's own guide, checked October 21, 2026, and the Automator action and the Terminal command were checked on macOS 27.

1. Open the PDF in Preview, and go to the page you want.
2. Choose File, then Export.
3. Open the Format menu and choose JPEG or PNG. With JPEG you can also set the quality.
4. Give it a name, pick where it goes, and click Save.

The Format menu lists HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF, and holding Option as you open it shows a few more. Apple's guide doesn't say what happens to the rest of a long PDF, so check the result is the page you meant before you send it. For every page, use one of the ways below.

Automator has a Render PDF Pages as Images action. Apple's own note on it says the pictures get random names, so add two more actions to put them somewhere sensible and number them.

1. Open Automator from Applications, choose New Document, then Quick Action.
2. Set “Workflow receives current” to PDF files, in Finder.
3. Drag in Render PDF Pages as Images. Pick the format and the resolution, which starts at 200.
4. Drag in Move Finder Items and choose the folder, like Desktop.
5. Drag in Rename Finder Items, pick Make Sequential, and give the pictures a name.
6. Choose File, then Save, and call it PDF to Images.
7. In Finder, Control-click a PDF and choose Quick Actions, then PDF to Images.

1. Start dragging the PDF in Finder or on your desktop.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. The PDF wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop the PDF on Convert. The wheel turns into formats.
4. Click JPG or PNG. A one-page PDF becomes one picture beside it; a longer one becomes a folder of pictures, “Report pages”, which shows in Finder.

• Every page is drawn at 200 pixels to an inch. An A4 page comes out about 1654 by 2339 pixels, a US Letter page 1700 by 2200.
• There's nothing to set: no quality slider, no resolution to pick.
• The PDF is never touched. When its folder can't be written to, the pictures go to Downloads.
• A PDF a password keeps shut doesn't open.

It all runs on your Mac with Apple's PDFKit and Quartz, and nothing is uploaded. More on the Shift wheel.

Pick PNG for pages of text, charts and screenshots: it keeps edges sharp and never blurs letters. Pick JPG for pages that are mostly photos, or when the file has to be small, like a picture for a chat or a form upload that caps the size. A page of plain text as a JPG can show soft grey smudges round the letters, which is what JPG's compression does.

• Terminal's sips: sips -s format png file.pdf --out page.png only writes the first page. On a 13-page PDF we got one picture.
• Text stops being text: a picture of a page can't be searched or copied from. Keep the PDF too.
• Many pages make many files: a long PDF as PNGs takes far more room than the PDF did. Pick JPG if that matters.
• Locked PDFs: one that needs a password to open has to be opened and saved without it first.

• A form that only takes JPG: plenty of upload forms refuse PDFs. Convert the one page they want, and check the size limit.
• One page in a chat or a post: a picture shows right in the message, where a PDF is a file to open.
• Slides or a presentation: PNGs of every page drop straight into Keynote or a video editor, one page to a slide.
• A thumbnail or a cover: the first page as a picture makes a preview image for a website or a shop listing.

For one page, Preview is quick. For a whole document, or a folder of PDFs, one drag on Koi does them all and keeps each set of pictures in its own folder, so they never get mixed up.

One page for a slide or a post? Preview's Export is already on your Mac. Every page now and then, and you like to choose the resolution? Build the Automator Quick Action. Doing it often, or for several PDFs at a time? Koi does it in one drag, and the same wheel turns a PDF into a Word file, splits it and compresses it. Pictures going the other way, into a PDF? Koi's picture wheel converts them to PDF too.

Preview and Automator are free. Koi has no free 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. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.