How to Extract Images from a PDF in Full Quality

A screenshot of a PDF only captures what's on your screen, at your screen's resolution. To get the actual photos, logos and figures stored inside the file — at their full original quality — open Extract Images from PDF, add the PDF, and download the images one by one or all together in a ZIP.

How to extract images

1. Open Extract Images from PDF and add your PDF.
2. The tool lists every image it finds on every page. An image used on many pages — a logo in the header, say — appears only once.
3. Download the images you want individually, or download them all as one ZIP file.

The images are saved as PNG files, which store every pixel without losing quality.

Why this beats screenshots

When a brochure, catalogue or report contains a photo, the PDF stores that photo as a separate image — often at a much higher resolution than it appears on the page. A 1,000-pixel-wide product photo might be shown just 5 cm wide. A screenshot captures those 5 cm at screen resolution; extraction gives you all 1,000 pixels.

That makes extraction the right tool for:

• Recovering photos from an event programme, a property brochure or a product catalogue.
• Reusing figures from a research paper or a report in a presentation (with permission or proper citation).
• Getting a logo out of a letterhead or an invoice when you can't find the original file.
• Saving scanned pages — a scanned PDF is usually one big image per page, so you get the scan itself.

The size filter

PDFs often contain lots of tiny images: bullet points, icons, decorative lines, thin rules. The tool hides very small images by default so the list shows the pictures you actually want. If something you expected is missing — a small icon, for example — set the size filter to 0 to show everything.

When an image isn't found

Not everything that looks like a picture is stored as an image:

• Charts and diagrams made in Excel, PowerPoint or design software are usually vector drawings — lines and shapes, not pixels. They're not images inside the PDF, so they won't be listed. To capture them, convert the page with the PDF to Image Converter at 300 dpi and crop the chart out.
• Text that looks like a graphic — a stylised heading — is usually real text in a special font.
• Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.

PNG files are big — here's what to do

Because the images are saved losslessly, a photo that was a compact JPEG inside the PDF can become a much larger PNG. If you need smaller files:

• Convert them to JPG or WebP with the Image Converter.
• Or shrink them with the Image Compressor, which keeps them looking the same at a fraction of the size.

Respect copyright

Being able to extract an image doesn't mean you're allowed to reuse it. Photos in brochures and papers belong to their creators. Extract images from your own documents, from documents you have permission to use, or for purposes the law allows, such as quoting with attribution.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. On an iPhone, save single images to Photos from the downloaded file (open it and tap Share › Save Image); a ZIP opens in the Files app. On Android, images go to Downloads and appear in your gallery.

Is the PDF uploaded?

No. The images are read out of the file inside your browser, so nothing is sent to a server.

Why are some images upside down or with odd colours?

PDFs can store an image one way and flip, rotate or recolour it when drawing the page. The tool saves the stored image itself; rotate it back with an image editor if needed, or convert the page with PDF to Image to get exactly what the page shows.