Convert images to PDF

Turn one image, several images, or a folder of images into a PDF with one page per image, from SumatraPDF or from the command line.

Available in pre-release 3.7

Open the image (or folder) and use File → Convert to PDF… At a glance:

In SumatraPDF: Convert to PDF… (CmdConvertToPDF) — the image, or every image in the folder, to one PDF.
Current page only: Convert page to PDF (CmdConvertImageToPdf), via the image editor.
Command line: sumatrapdf-tool convert -O compress -o out.pdf a.png b.jpg

To convert a comic book archive (.cbz, .cbr, …), see Convert comics to PDF.

Convert in SumatraPDF #

Open an image, or a folder of images (see Comics and manga).
Start Convert to PDF… in any of these ways:
- File → Convert to PDF…
- Right-click the document → Document → Convert to PDF…
- Right-click an image → Convert to PDF…
- Ctrl + K, Convert To PDF in Command Palette
A dialog shows the source path and a suggested destination:
- Default path is the same location and base name with a .pdf extension.
- If that file already exists, the name is made unique (e.g. photo.1.pdf).
- Edit the path in the text field, or use … to browse.
Click Convert to PDF. On success the new PDF is written and opened in SumatraPDF. On failure you get a short error dialog.

Press Esc or Cancel to close the dialog without converting.

Works for PNG, JPEG, WebP, JPEG XL, HEIC, AVIF, TIFF, GIF, and other image types. Animated GIFs, multi-page TIFFs and ICO files get one page per frame.

Convert only the current page #

Convert page to PDF (CmdConvertImageToPdf, on the image context menu) converts only the current page, through the image editor and a save dialog. For a single image Convert to PDF… gives the same one-page PDF without opening the image editor.

How images are stored in the PDF #

SumatraPDF embeds the original image bytes when PDF can use them directly:

Format	Behavior
JPEG, PNG	Embedded as-is (usually the most compact)
Animated GIF, multi-page TIFF, ICO	Each frame is rendered as its own page
WebP, JPEG XL, HEIC, AVIF, TGA, and similar	Decoded, encoded as PNG, then losslessly recompressed (zopfli) before embedding
If encode/embed fails	Page is rendered into the PDF as a last resort
If every path fails for a page	That page is skipped (conversion continues with the rest)

There is no quality / DPI setting: JPEG and PNG keep their original data, other formats go through a lossless PNG path. The PDF’s producer metadata is set to the current SumatraPDF version (e.g. SumatraPDF 3.7).

Convert from the command line #

Use sumatrapdf-tool.exe convert, or SumatraPDF.exe convert with the same arguments.

One image:

sumatrapdf-tool convert -O compress -o photo.pdf photo.png

Several images, one page each, in the order given:

sumatrapdf-tool convert -O compress -o album.pdf 01.png 02.jpg 03.png

Every image in a folder, in file name order:

sumatrapdf-tool convert -O compress -o album.pdf C:\Photos\Trip

-O compress compresses the image data. Without it PNG and other non-JPEG images are stored uncompressed: a 20 kB PNG screenshot becomes a 790 kB PDF instead of 25 kB. JPEG images are always embedded as-is.
Reads PNG, JPEG, WebP, BMP, GIF and TIFF. For HEIC, AVIF and JPEG XL, use Convert to PDF… in SumatraPDF.

More options: sumatrapdf-tool convert.

Tips #

Use JPEG or PNG sources for the smallest PDF; they are embedded without re-encoding.
Name files 01.png, 02.png, … so a folder converts in the right order.
Use Compress a PDF for documents that are already PDF.

Convert in SumatraPDF #

Convert only the current page #

How images are stored in the PDF #

Convert from the command line #

Tips #

See also #