Convert JPG to PDF in your browser
For the form that will only accept a PDF. Your photo goes into the page byte for byte, so nothing is re-encoded and nothing is uploaded.
or browse your device. Everything is processed on this device
No JPG to hand?
The PDF is the size of the JPG inside it and keeps whatever that JPG carried. Compressing it first fixes both, then convert the result.
Compress the JPG firstHow to convert JPG to PDF
JPG and JPEG are the same thing, so either works. Nothing is uploaded: the file is read off your disk into this tab.
A photographed document that is going to a form should be on a real page size. Match the image is for pictures that stay on a screen.
The photo keeps its EXIF, which on a phone usually includes where it was taken. Strip it with the JPG compressor first if the PDF is leaving your hands.
Photographing a document, and what usually goes wrong
Most people on this page are not converting a picture, they are trying to send a document they photographed because they have no scanner. The conversion is the easy half. The half that gets the submission rejected is the photograph: a page shot at an angle, with a shadow across it, on a patterned tablecloth, at four thousand pixels wide and six megabytes.
Shoot it flat from directly above, on a plain surface, in daylight rather than under a ceiling light that puts your own shadow on the paper. Fill the frame with the page and nothing else. Then cap the width somewhere around 1600 to 2000 pixels before converting: that is still comfortably readable text on screen and in print, and it takes a six megabyte photograph down to under a megabyte, which is what the form is actually complaining about.
The other thing worth knowing is that this is a picture of a document, not a document. The text in it cannot be selected, searched or copied, because there is no text in the file, only pixels arranged to look like some. Anything that needs to read the words in it, including most automated systems, will not be able to. That is true of every photo to PDF converter and is worth knowing before you rely on one.
JPG to PDF FAQ
Will my photo lose quality?
No. The JPEG is embedded byte for byte, so the image inside the PDF is bit for bit the file you dropped, with no second lossy pass. That matters more with JPEG than with any other format, because re-encoding a JPEG always costs a little quality even at high settings. The one exception is the width cap: setting one redraws and re-encodes the photo, and the result panel says so.
Does my location end up in the PDF?
It can, and on a phone photo it usually does. Because the image is embedded untouched, its EXIF goes with it, and phone EXIF normally includes GPS coordinates, the date, and the device. If the PDF is going to a landlord, an employer or a public form, run the photo through the JPG compressor with metadata stripping on first, then convert the result.
Can I put several photos into one PDF?
Not yet. Each photo becomes its own single page PDF, so a three page document photographed as three images gives you three files. Combining them into one document is the next thing this tool should do and it is not built. For now, convert each and merge them in a PDF reader, or use a scanning app that produces a multi page PDF directly.
Why is the PDF not smaller than my photo?
Because a PDF is a container rather than a compressor. The photo goes inside as it was and the document adds about a kilobyte of structure around it, so a 4MB JPEG makes a 4MB PDF. To get a smaller file, cap the width here, or compress the JPG first and convert the result.
Can the text in the PDF be searched or selected?
No. The PDF contains a photograph of a page, not the words on it, so there is nothing to select and nothing for a search to find. Making it searchable needs optical character recognition, which is a different job and not one this tool does. If the document exists as a file somewhere, exporting a PDF from that will always beat photographing it.
Are my JPG files uploaded to convert them?
No. The JPG is decoded and the PDF is written by your own browser, in this tab. There is no upload endpoint in the site for a file to go to, which you can check in your network tools: convert something and watch that no request carries it. Disconnect from the network after the page loads and it still works.
Related
Same format joins the queue. Anything else re-routes to its own tool.