Practical guide

PDF to JPG versus PNG

Both formats turn a PDF page into pixels, but they optimize for different kinds of content.

Published and reviewed

Choose JPG for smaller photographic images

JPG uses lossy compression and is usually a practical choice for photos, previews and web sharing where modest quality loss is acceptable.

Choose PNG for crisp lines and text

PNG uses lossless compression and often preserves screenshots, diagrams and sharp text edges better. The trade-off is a larger file, especially for complex pages.

Resolution matters

FileSwift uses a render-scale setting. A higher value creates more pixels, improves detail and increases memory use and ZIP size. Start with the default and increase only when the output is not sharp enough.

What both formats lose

Neither JPG nor PNG preserves selectable text, PDF links, forms, bookmarks or other interactive document features. Keep the original PDF when those features matter.