How to extract images from a PDF

You have a PDF with a photo, a logo or a diagram in it, and you want the picture itself, not the whole page. Maybe it is your own proposal, a listing sheet or an old report. You can pull each picture out and save it as a file of its own.

The quickest way is Extract Images. It lists every picture it finds, lets you choose which ones to keep and saves them in your browser. This guide gives the steps, says what to expect in the saved files and explains what to do when a picture seems to be missing.

How do I extract images from a PDF?

Add the PDF to Extract Images and wait a moment while it lists every picture on the pages. Every picture starts chosen, so untick the ones you do not want. Press Extract. One picture downloads as a file, and several arrive together in one zip.

1. Open Extract Images and drop your PDF onto it, or choose the file from your device.
2. Wait while PDFinish looks through every page. It shows you what it finds.
3. Look over the list. Every picture starts chosen, so untick any you do not want.
4. If the list is full of icons and bullets, skip the small pictures by size.
5. Press Extract. One chosen picture downloads as itself. Several come together in one zip file.
6. Open a few of the saved files to check them before you use them.

Do the pictures keep their original quality?

Yes. A JPEG inside the PDF is saved as the exact bytes stored there, with no new compression. Other pictures are saved as PNG with the very same pixels, and transparency is kept. Nothing is shrunk or resampled, so you get back what the author put into the file.

That matters because compressing a JPEG again can cost a little more detail each time. Copying the stored bytes avoids that. A PNG keeps every pixel exactly as it is, which is why it suits the pictures that were not JPEGs.

One more detail. A picture used on several pages, such as a logo in a header, is listed once. You will not get a copy for every page.

Is this the same as saving each page as an image?

No. Extract Images pulls out the separate pictures placed on the pages, at the size they were stored. PDF to JPG draws whole pages, text and all, as pictures. Pick Extract Images when you want the photo or the logo, and PDF to JPG when you want the page.

If you do need whole pages as pictures, read how to convert a PDF to JPG without changing the size. For small text and sharp edges, how to convert a PDF to PNG without losing quality explains why PNG can be the better choice.

A worked example

Say a freelancer wrote a proposal and saved it as a PDF. The file has a logo in the header of every page and four photos of past work. The original files are on an old laptop that no longer starts.

They add the PDF to Extract Images. The logo is listed once, even though it appears on every page, and the four photos are listed with it. They leave everything chosen and press Extract. A zip arrives with the logo and the photos inside. The ones that were JPEGs in the PDF come out as JPEGs, byte for byte, ready for the next proposal.

What if my PDF is a scan?

A scanned PDF holds each page as one big picture, so you get one picture per page. That is the page itself, not a photo on it. If you want the words from a scan, run OCR PDF, which reads them and adds them as hidden text.

Going the other way is just as easy. To put pictures back into a PDF, use JPG to PDF.

Why are some pictures missing?

A few pictures are stored in formats PDFinish cannot read yet, such as JPEG 2000 or fax-style scans. The tool tells you how many it could not save. Charts and shapes drawn with lines are not pictures at all, so they are not listed.

Common problems and fixes

• A picture you expected is not in the list. It may be drawn as shapes, like a chart made of lines, or stored in a format that cannot be read yet. Use PDF to PNG to save the whole page instead.
• The list is full of tiny pictures. Skip small pictures by size so icons and bullets are left out.
• You wanted JPG and got PNG. Only pictures stored as JPEG are saved as JPEG. Everything else is saved as PNG with the same pixels.
• The saved picture is smaller than it looked on the page. Pictures come out at the size they were stored, not the size shown on the page.
• You get one picture per page and no photos. The PDF is a scan. Use OCR PDF if you need the words.
• The zip is bigger than you want to send. Pictures are saved in their original quality, so pick only the ones you need, or read why your PDF is so big.

Where does your file go?

Nowhere. Extract Images finds and saves the pictures in your browser, so the PDF is not sent to our servers. That is worth knowing when the file holds photos of people, a client's work or a private listing, and it means nothing waits on an upload.

A short checklist

• Keep your original PDF. Extracting never changes it.
• Untick what you do not need and skip small pictures.
• Download, then open a few files to check them.
• If a picture is missing, check whether it was drawn as shapes or is in a format that cannot be read yet.

2 free uses in total, no account needed. Free files can be up to 50 MB, and Pro allows up to 500 MB.

Sources

• PDFinish's own Extract Images page, for the saved formats, the small-picture option, the formats it cannot read yet and the browser-only processing, as of November 2026.