How to convert a JPG image to a PDF

When a PDF is better than a JPG

Photos of documents are awkward to share: they open in different viewers, print at unpredictable sizes and are hard to combine. A PDF fixes the page size, prints predictably, and lets you put several images in one file that opens the same everywhere.

Many portals accept only PDF for uploads such as proofs of address, receipts or signed forms. Converting your JPG first saves you from a rejected submission.

Steps to convert JPG to PDF

JPG to PDF accepts .jpg and .jpeg files and works in your browser, so the images are not uploaded.

• Open JPG to PDF and add one or more images.
• Reorder them if needed and rotate any that are sideways.
• Choose the page size: fit to image, A4 or US Letter.
• Choose the orientation (automatic, portrait or landscape) and the margin (none, small or big).
• Create the PDF, download it and open it to check that every image sits where you expect.

Choosing page size and orientation

Fit to image makes each page exactly the size of its picture, which avoids empty bands and is ideal for screens and archiving. A4 and US Letter produce standard sheets, which is what you want if the file will be printed or sent to someone who expects a normal document.

With A4 or Letter, the image is scaled to fit the page. Automatic orientation picks portrait or landscape for each image, so a landscape photo does not end up small on a portrait page. Use A4 in most of the world and US Letter for the United States and Canada.

Margins and how the image is placed

With no margin, the picture runs to the page edges, which is right for photos and scanned pages. A small margin leaves a thin white border that looks tidier on paper and avoids printers clipping the edges. A big margin frames the image and suits a single photo on a full page.

Each image gets its own page. If you want several pictures on one sheet, that is a different layout job and not what this tool does.

Quality and file size

JPG images are embedded in the PDF without recompression, so their quality does not drop during conversion and the PDF is roughly as large as the images combined. That is good for quality but means twenty phone photos can produce a file of tens of megabytes.

If the result is too large for an upload limit or an email, reduce the size of the source images first, or run the PDF through Compress PDF, which re-encodes embedded images at a lower resolution. Balance is important: text in a photographed document needs enough resolution to stay readable.

Photographing a document for a good result

The conversion cannot fix a poor photo. Take the picture in even light, from directly above, with the page filling most of the frame and edges visible. Avoid shadows from your hand or phone, and keep the phone parallel to the paper to avoid skewed text.

• Use daylight or a lamp that does not cast a shadow of the phone.
• Hold the camera straight above the page, not at an angle.
• Rotate images upright before creating the PDF.
• If the PDF must be searchable, run OCR PDF on it afterwards.

More than one image, or other formats

For a multi-page file from several photos, add them all in one go and set the order before you create the PDF. If your pictures are PNG, WebP, GIF or BMP rather than JPG, use PNG to PDF or Images to PDF, which handles more formats. HEIC and TIFF files are not supported, so convert them to JPG on your device first.