How to turn PDF to JPG on Mac

Have you downloaded a PDF document full of beautiful images on your Mac that you would like to be able to save in JPG format but you don’t know how to do it? Do not worry! You probably weren’t aware of it, but macOS includes all the tools you need to do this, and today I’ll show you how to use them. Time five minutes and, I assure you, you will learn how to transform a PDF to JPG with Mac in a very simple way.

All you have to do is read the instructions below and put them into practice. Do not be alarmed, you will not have to do anything complicated: all the operations that I am going to illustrate can be carried out without the slightest problem even by those who, a bit like you, do not consider themselves an expert in IT and new technologies.

If, then, the tools included “standard” in macOS should not satisfy you, it will be my pleasure to point out some third-party programs and online services that you can take advantage of as a valid alternative and that are just as simple to use. But now let’s go in order: just chat and let’s take action. I wish you, as usual, happy reading and I wish you the best of luck for everything!

Index

• Predefined tools to turn PDF to JPG on Mac
  • Preview
  • Automator
• Programs to convert PDF to JPG on Mac
  • PDF Toolkit +
  • Pixillion Image Converter
• Online services to turn PDF to JPG on Mac
  • ILovePDF

Predefined tools to turn PDF to JPG on Mac

First, let’s try to understand how to turn PDF to JPG on Mac using what are the default tools included in macOS:  Preview and Automator. To find out more, read on.

Preview

If the PDF document you need to transform into a photo is made up of a few pages, I recommend you use Preview, the macOS application with which images and PDF files are opened by default. It allows you to export PDFs to JPG but unfortunately it does not process more than one page at a time, so it cannot be used with particularly “full-bodied” documents.

To use Preview for your purpose, open the document you want to work on and select the Thumbnails option from the View menu. At this point, right-click on the preview of the page to be transformed into a JPG file that appears in the left sidebar of the program window and select the Export as item from the menu that appears.

In the window that opens, select JPEG from the Format drop-down menu and proceed with the export of the selected page indicating the name you want to assign it, the location in which to save the file, adjusting the quality and resolution settings and pressing, finally, on the Save button. Repeat the operation with all the pages of the PDF you want to extrapolate and that’s it.

Automator

If you need to convert a PDF file to JPG going to act on a document consisting of many pages, you can create a script in Automator. If you have never heard of it, Automator is an application included in macOS that allows you to automate various operations on files and folders based on scripts, in fact, or small applications created by the user.

To create your PDF to JPG converter, first start  Automator by selecting it from the Launchpad Other folder  (it has a robot icon  ). In the window that opens, press the New Document button and double-click the Application icon.

Now select the Library item from the left sidebar and double-click first on Ask for Finder items, then on Transform PDF pages into images and, finally, on  Move Finder Items, in order to make all three items appear in the right part of the window.

At this point, select the Save item from the File menu located in the upper left part of the screen and save your “little program” verifying that the Application option is selected in the  File Format drop-down menu  (otherwise you can do it yourself), indicating the location for saving and pressing the Save button.

Now you just have to open the application you just created in Automator, select the PDF document to be transformed into JPG and within a few seconds you will find all the pages of the file saved on the macOS desktop in the form of JPEG photos. Great, right?

Programs to convert PDF to JPG on Mac

Now let’s move on to third-party programs thanks to which it is possible to transform PDF documents into JPG images: below you will find those that, in my opinion, represent the best in the category. Try them and you will see that you will not regret it!

PDF Toolkit +

The first of the third-party programs that I invite you to consider is  PDF Toolkit +: it is a light and compact application that allows you to edit or convert PDF documents in various ways. In short, a sort of Swiss army knife for electronic documents. It is not free, it costs € 2.29, but I can assure you that the practically negligible expense is worth it.

To use it, purchase and download it on your Mac by connecting to the relevant section of the Mac App Store Online, pressing the View button in the Mac App Store and then clicking on the button with the price in the Mac App Store window that has opened on desk. Finally, authorize the purchase by typing your Apple account password (if required) or using Touch ID (if you have a Mac with Touch ID).

Then, start the program by clicking on its icon (the one with the hammer and the PDF document ) added to the Launchpad, go to the Text / Images tab attached to the pop-up window on the screen, drag over the document to convert and set the JPEG option in the drop-down menu located at the bottom right.

To conclude, make sure that there is the High-resolution value (300 dpi) set in the drop-down menu located under the heading Record as images and presses the Convert button to choose the folder in which to save the JPG images and finalize the operation.

Pixillion Image Converter

Another program that you can consider is  Pixillion Image Converter: it is a paid software that can be used free of charge for non-commercial use that acts as a converter for images and PDFs and which also integrates several useful tools for editing and correcting the selected items.

To download it to your computer, connect to its official website and click on the Mac Download button located at the top center. When the download is complete, extract the ZIP archive obtained, open the .dmg package contained within it, click on the Agree button in the window that appears on the desktop and drag the program icon (the one with the photo ) into the MacOS Applications folder. Next, right-click on it and select the Open item twice in a row, in order to open Pixillion Image Converter going to circumvent the limitations imposed by Apple on applications from non-certified developers.

Now that you see the software window on your desktop, drag and drop the PDFs you want to turn into JPG over it. Alternatively, select the documents by hand by clicking the Add File (s) button at the top left. If you want, you can also select an entire folder containing files to convert by pressing the Add Folder button (always located at the top, on the left).

At this point, select the JPG option from the Output Format drop-down menu at the bottom, click on the adjacent Compression Settings button to adjust the image compression settings and specify the output folder, pressing the Browse button next to the item Output Folder (by default this is the Pictures folder ).

If you want, make any adjustments to what will be the final image by pressing the Effects button. To conclude and, therefore, start the conversion, click on the Convert button on the right.

Online services to turn PDF to JPG on Mac

As I told you at the beginning of the article, you can transform your PDF files into JPG also by resorting to the use of solutions not included in macOS. In this regard, if you do not want to download new applications on your Mac, I suggest you evaluate the use of one of the online services specifically designed for the purpose that I will report to you below.

ILovePDF

Another great online service that I recommend you appeal to is iLovePDF. Again, it is a web tool that offers various options dedicated to converting and editing PDFs. It does not require registration and safeguards the privacy of users by automatically removing the files uploaded to its servers. It’s free and has an upload limit of 200MB.

To use it, connect to its page dedicated to converting PDF to JPG  and drag the documents you want to act on in the browser window. Alternatively, click the Select PDF files button and select them manually. You can also take files from Dropbox or Google Drive by clicking on the relevant buttons located to the right.

Then choose, by clicking on the appropriate buttons below, whether to convert whole pages to JPG ( Pages to JPG ) or whether to extract images from PDF ( Extract images ) and click on the Convert to JPG button located at the bottom of the screen to start processing and the download of the images that will be downloaded in a ZIP archive. If you haven’t changed your browser’s default settings, the final ZIP file will be saved in the macOS Downloads folder.