How to convert images to a PDF
- Drop your images onto the box or press Choose files. You can select many at once and add more later.
- Put them in order by dragging, or with the ↑ and ↓ buttons. Each image becomes one page, in this order.
- Choose a page size. A4 or US Letter gives pages that print properly and look uniform; Same as each image makes every page exactly the size of its picture, with no border.
- For A4 and Letter, choose the orientation: Match each image puts landscape photos on landscape pages and portrait photos on portrait pages. Choose a margin if the pages will be printed.
- Press Create PDF. The file downloads as images.pdf.
How the PDF is built
JPGs are not recompressed
PDF can store JPEG data directly, so a JPG is copied into the file byte for byte. There is no second round of compression, the quality is exactly that of your photo, and the PDF is about as large as the images added together. PNG images are stored losslessly. Other formats — WebP, GIF, BMP, and HEIC where the browser supports it — are first decoded by your browser and converted to PNG, which keeps them sharp but can make the file larger than the original.
Phone photos stay upright
Phones usually save a photo in the orientation of the camera sensor and add a note, the EXIF orientation tag defined in the CIPA Exif standard, saying how it should be turned for viewing. Browsers and photo apps apply that note automatically, but PDF has no idea it exists, so many converters produce sideways pages. This tool reads the tag and draws the picture rotated by 90°, 180° or 270° inside the PDF, without re-encoding it. The rare mirrored orientations are handled by letting the browser straighten the image first.
Page sizes and scaling
PDF measures pages in points, 72 to the inch. An A4 page is 595.28 × 841.89 points and US Letter 612 × 792. Each image is scaled to fit inside the page minus the margin, keeping its proportions, and centred. With Same as each image, there is no physical size stored in most images, so the tool assumes 96 pixels per inch, the value used by CSS: an 800 × 600 image becomes an 8.33 × 6.25 inch page (600 × 450 points). The pixels are the same either way; only the printed size changes.
Examples
| Image | Settings | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 4000 × 3000 photo | A4, match image, 10 mm margin | Landscape A4; the photo is 718 × 539 points, about 401 pixels per inch |
| 1000 × 2000 scan | A4, landscape, no margin | Landscape A4; the scan fills the height and is centred with space either side |
| 800 × 600 screenshot | Same as each image | 600 × 450 points (8.33 × 6.25 in) |
| Phone photo stored 4032 × 3024 with orientation 6 | Same as each image | Portrait page, photo upright |
At about 400 pixels per inch, the 4000 × 3000 photo prints far more sharply than the eye can tell apart; 300 pixels per inch is the usual target for print, and 150 is enough for documents viewed on screen. A 10 mm margin is 28.35 points on each side.
Limits
- No compression. Large photos make a large PDF. To make it smaller, resize or compress the images first, then convert.
- No text recognition. The PDF contains pictures of the pages; the text in a scanned document cannot be searched or copied.
- HEIC depends on the browser. Safari can open iPhone HEIC photos; most other browsers cannot, so convert them to JPG first or set the iPhone camera to "Most Compatible".
- Transparency. Transparent areas of a PNG are shown as transparent in the PDF, which most viewers display as white.
Frequently asked questions
How do I combine several JPGs into one PDF?
Drop them all in, drag them into order and press Create PDF. Each image becomes one page.
Will the quality get worse?
Not for JPG and PNG: they are embedded as they are. Other formats are converted to lossless PNG.
Why are my phone photos no longer sideways?
The tool reads the orientation the phone stored in each photo and rotates the image inside the PDF to match.
Can I make every page A4?
Yes. Choose A4 as the page size; each image is scaled to fit and centred.
Are my images uploaded?
No. The PDF is created in your browser and the images never leave your device.