Convert a PDF to JPG on your Mac, one image per page
By Himanshu Ranjan · Updated 8 November 2026
To convert a PDF to JPG on a Mac with FileDial, select it in Finder, hold the right Option key and choose Convert › PDF to JPG. You get one JPG per page at 150 dpi, beside the original. Choose PDF to JPG (300 dpi) for print or zooming in, or PDF to PNG for sharp text and diagrams. Conversion happens on your Mac with nothing uploaded.
How to do it with FileDial
- Select the PDF, or several PDFs, in Finder.
- Hold right ⌥ and choose Convert.
- Pick PDF to JPG, PDF to JPG (300 dpi) or PDF to PNG.
- Find one image per page beside the original.
Your original file stays untouched. The result is saved beside it, and every result has Undo.
Which option to pick
| Tool | Use it when |
|---|---|
| PDF to JPGConvert | Screen use, chat or slides: one JPG per page at 150 dpi. |
| PDF to JPG (300 dpi)Convert | Printing or zooming into detail: one JPG per page at 300 dpi. |
| PDF to PNGConvert | Text, charts and line art you want without JPG artefacts: one PNG per page at 150 dpi. |
Choosing resolution and format
Dpi decides how many pixels each page gets. At 150 dpi a standard letter or A4 page becomes an image that fills a laptop screen comfortably and stays a reasonable size for email or messaging. At 300 dpi each side doubles, so there are four times as many pixels: right for printing, for cropping a small part of a page, or for reading fine print, but the files are larger.
JPG and PNG suit different pages. JPG is designed for photographs and compresses them efficiently, but around crisp text and thin lines it can leave faint smudges. PNG is lossless, so text and diagrams stay perfectly sharp, at the cost of larger files for photo-heavy pages. A scanned photo album suits JPG; a spreadsheet printout or a floor plan suits PNG.
Remember that images are flat. Once a page is a JPG, its text can't be selected or searched, and links stop working. Keep the PDF as the master copy and treat the images as exports.
Why not use a PDF to JPG website?
People often turn PDFs into images to post a page of a document somewhere, which means the source is frequently a certificate, a ticket, an ID or a statement. Uploading it to a converter puts the whole document on a server you can't see. Cybernews reported in July 2024 that two online PDF services left storage open, exposing 89,062 user-uploaded files including passports, IDs, certificates and contracts.
The FBI Denver Field Office warned in March 2025 that files returned by free converters can carry malware. FileDial renders the images on your Mac; on a MacBook a 42 MB PDF was turned into images in about 2 seconds.
Other ways to turn a PDF into images on a Mac
Preview can export a PDF page as an image: open the PDF, choose File › Export, pick JPEG or PNG as the format and set the resolution. It exports the page you are on, so a multi-page document means repeating the export for each page.
That is fine for a single page. FileDial saves every page in one step, handles a batch of PDFs at once, offers fixed 150 and 300 dpi settings so results are consistent, and keeps Undo on every result.
Questions
Does FileDial convert every page?
Yes. Each of the three tools saves one image per page, beside the original PDF, so a 12-page document gives you 12 images. The PDF itself is not changed.
What resolution should I pick?
150 dpi is fine for screens, chat and slides. Use PDF to JPG (300 dpi) for printing or when you need to zoom into small text or details.
JPG or PNG?
JPG keeps photo-heavy pages smaller. PNG keeps text, charts and line drawings perfectly sharp but files are larger. Both FileDial options produce one image per page at 150 dpi.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Conversion runs on your Mac and works with Wi-Fi off. The PDF is never uploaded, and there is no website file size limit to work around.
Can I convert many PDFs at once?
Yes. Select them all in Finder and run one tool. FileDial converts the whole selection in a batch, saving each file's page images beside that file.