It is easy to change a PDF into one or more images on your Mac. The built-in macOS preview and Shortcuts app, as well as third-party apps and websites, make it easy for you to do just that. Next, we will show you how to convert PDF to JPG or PNG.
Use Preview to export PDF as JPG, HEIC, or PNG
1. Right-click a PDF and choose Open With > Preview.
2. From the left sidebar, select the PDF page you want to convert as an image.
3. Click File > Export.
4. Click the Format dropdown menu and choose HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, or PNG.
5. click Save.
It is important to note that this method does not support exporting all or multiple PDF pages as multiple individual images.
Use the Shortcuts app to convert PDF to image on Mac
This method lets you convert all pages of a PDF to individual images.
Starting with macOS Monterey, Mac has a shortcut app that lets you do multiple things quickly. It’s easy to build A Siri shortcut that converts a PDF to an image. Here’s how:
1. Open the Shortcuts app and click the plus button.
2. Search for Make Image and double click Make Image from PDF Page to add it to the shortcut.
3. Optional: You can click the blue “PNG image” word and set it as JPEG or set it to Ask Each Time.
4. Click the blue “PDF” word and set it to Shortcut Input.
5. Recommended: Under If there’s no input, click the word “Continue” and choose to Ask For > Files.
6. Type Save File in the search box on the top-right and add double click to add this action to the shortcut.
7. Click the settings icon from the top right and check Use as Quick Action. Below that, also check Finder and other services as desired.
8. Give your shortcut a name. You can also customize the icon.
9. Finally, click the tiny red button to save and close the window. You have successfully built the shortcut to convert all pages of a PDF to images on Mac.
10. Right-click on a PDF in Finder and choose Quick Actions > Shortcut name. It’ll take a few seconds to process (Tip: When it’s processing, the Shortcut app icon in Mac’s menu bar will be solid). After that, choose a location to save the PDF pages as images and click Open.
All the pages of the PDF will be saved as individual images.
Use a third-party Mac application
If your work involves the daily conversion of PDFs to image files, you can try the following apps:
Free to use without watermark
PDF to Image Converter Expert : Not updated in a long time. But the best and easiest app to convert PDF pages into individual images.
Purely PDF to Image : Another excellent free app.
Recasto – Convert PDF to Images and Images to PDF : Saves two folders of images. One is empty while the other one has the PDF pages as images.
Take a screenshot to convert PDF to images
When you press Command + Shift + 4 and select a page of the PDF to take a screenshot, the size of the various screenshots might differ as you may not be able to make the perfect area selection each time.
To address this, open a PDF in Preview and adjust the page by pressing Command + Plus (+) or Minus (-). You can also open Preview in full screen by clicking the tiny green button from the top left.
To address this, open a PDF in Preview and adjust the page by pressing Command + Plus (+) or Minus (-). You can also open Preview in full screen by clicking the tiny green button from the top left.
Once you have the PDF opened properly in full screen, press Command + Shift + 5 and use this method to select an area to take the screenshot. The good thing about this method is that if you have to take screenshots of several PDF pages, pressing Command + Shift + 5 will remember the screen area selection. So, all the screenshots you take will be of the same size.
Use online websites to convert PDF to images
Another way is to upload PDFs to a website’s online server. It should be noted that if your PDF is sensitive, please try to use the method mentioned above.
iLovePDF has been well received over the years, and the site is relatively comprehensive, offering several PDF editing tools, including converting PDFs to JPG or extracting individual images within a PDF.
The above methods are relatively simple, and you can decide which of them to choose according to the actual situation.
