PNG to PDF
Screenshots that stay sharp and cutouts that stay transparent, one PNG per page, stored exactly as they are rather than squashed into a JPEG.
- No uploads
- No sign-up
- No file limit
- No watermark
nothing was uploaded
Why a screenshot goes blurry in most PDF converters
Because they turn it into a JPEG. JPEG was designed for photographs: it throws away the detail the eye is least likely to miss, and in a photograph that is a very good trade. A screenshot is the opposite kind of picture. It is mostly flat colour with hard edges, and hard edges are exactly what JPEG spends its budget smearing. Text picks up a grey fuzz, interface lines ring, and a document that was meant to be evidence of what was on your screen stops looking like it.
A PDF does not need that. It can hold an image compressed the way PNG itself compresses one: deflate, with each row predicted from the row above so the differences are near zero. On Best that is what happens, and the picture in the document is the picture you had, pixel for pixel. Auto compares the lossless version against a JPEG one per picture and keeps whichever is smaller, which for flat artwork is almost always the lossless one.
Transparency, which almost nothing else keeps
PDF has held transparency since version 1.4: an image can carry a soft mask, which is a greyscale image saying how opaque each pixel is. That is the same idea as a PNG's alpha channel, and it is what a cutout needs.
Set "behind the picture" to None and the alpha goes in as a soft mask. Set it to White or Black and the picture is laid on that colour instead. Almost every other converter has made this decision for you before you arrive, because a picture drawn onto a canvas has already lost its transparency. One thing to expect: most PDF readers show a white page under everything, so a transparent PDF looks the same until you place it in a design tool, which is the moment it matters.
If what you have is not transparent yet, the background remover makes it so, and a cutout goes straight into a document from there.
The page you will get, while you are still choosing it
The preview beside the settings is not a mock-up. It is drawn by the same two functions that lay the document out, so the box, the margin and the turn are the ones the file will have. Change the page to A3, drag the margin to 15 mm, switch to fill, and watch the picture move the way it is going to move.
"Same as the picture" reads the resolution out of the PNG's own pHYs chunk when it has one, so a file saved at 300 dots per inch becomes a page of the right physical size instead of one four times too large. Without it, 96 dots per inch is assumed, which is what a screen is and what a screenshot was drawn at.
Nearby
PDF to PNG goes the other way and keeps that same sharpness on the way back. JPG to PDF is the one for photographs, image to PDF takes a mixture of formats in one document, and compress PNG is the page to visit first if the PNG files themselves are the thing that is too big.
Guides that go further
Part of transparent pngs, explained. What each format is, when to use it, and what to do when a file will not open.
- Transparent PNG: what it is, where it works, and where it failsA transparent PNG stores see-through pixels, not a checkered background. How to tell a real one, where transparency survives, and where it turns white.
- What is a transparent background, really?A transparent background is empty pixels, not white ones. How alpha works, why editors show a checkerboard, and which formats keep it: PNG, WebP, AVIF, not JPG.
- Photo file formats: HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and more, explainedPhoto file formats compared: which keep transparency, which every app opens, and what to turn a HEIC, AVIF, WebP or JFIF into before you edit or share it.
- How to reduce a PNG's file size without losing transparencyReduce PNG file size by resizing, cutting colours and lossless optimising, with free PNG optimizer tools that keep transparency and run on your own device.
Questions
How do I convert a PNG to PDF?
Drop the PNG files here, drag them into the order you want, and click Save PDF. Each picture becomes a page. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, and there is no account, no watermark and no cap on how many files you convert.
Does a transparent PNG stay transparent in the PDF?
It can, and almost nowhere else will do it. Set "behind the picture" to None and the transparency is carried into the PDF as a soft mask, which is the format's own way of holding an alpha channel. Most converters draw your PNG onto a white canvas first and the transparency is gone before the PDF is written. Note that many PDF readers show a white page behind it regardless, so it looks the same until you place the file in a design tool, which is exactly when it matters.
Is a PNG in a PDF still lossless?
Yes, if you ask for it. On Best the pixels are stored exactly, compressed the way PNG itself compresses them (deflate with row filtering), so what comes out is what went in. Auto compares that against a JPEG version and takes whichever is smaller, which for a screenshot of flat colour is almost always the lossless one. Smallest always uses JPEG.
Can I put several PNGs in one PDF?
Yes. Every picture is a page, the order is yours to drag, and one PDF is the default. There is also a box for a separate PDF per picture, which arrive together as a ZIP.
Why is my screenshot blurry in the PDF?
Because something re-encoded it as a JPEG, which is what most converters do to everything. JPEG is built for photographs and smears the hard edges of text and interface lines. Use Best, or Auto, which recognises flat artwork and keeps it lossless, and the screenshot will be as sharp in the document as it was on your screen.
What page size will I get?
A4 by default, with US Letter, Legal, A3 and A5 beside it, and a preview of the real page before you save. "Same as the picture" makes the page match the PNG instead: it reads the resolution written in the file's pHYs chunk when there is one, so a picture saved at 300 dpi becomes a page of the right physical size rather than one four times too big.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The PDF is built in this tab. There is no endpoint on this site that could accept an image, and the page keeps working with the browser switched to offline once it has loaded.
Can I convert a PNG with a transparent background to a PDF with a white one?
Yes, and that is the default. "Behind the picture" is set to White, so the transparent areas become white paper. Black is there too, and None keeps the transparency.
Your files never leave this device
Most online converters upload every file to a server, convert it there and keep it for a while. Here your browser decodes and encodes the picture itself, so there is nowhere for the file to go. You can check it: load this page, switch the browser to offline, and convert a file. How to check a site is not uploading your photos.