How to rasterize a PDF and check readability
Create an image-only PDF, choose custom resolution and inspect small text. Compare rasterization with form flattening and exporting JPG or PNG pages.
To rasterize a PDF, open Rasterize PDF, choose your document and create an image-only PDF. Each original page is rendered as an image and placed on a page in the new document. The output remains a PDF, rather than a folder of JPG files.
Decide whether rasterization fits the task
Rasterizing changes text and vector graphics into pixels. Text is no longer selectable, forms and links stop being interactive, and cryptographic signatures are not preserved. Visible appearances become pixels. It can help when you specifically need an image-based copy, but it also loses structure that readers and assistive technology may need. Keep the original.
If the goal is only to make completed form fields non-editable, use Flatten PDF instead. If you need separate image files, use PDF to JPG or PNG. To reduce file size, compare the options in the compression guide; rasterizing can make a compact text PDF larger.
Prepare a short working copy
The tool accepts one valid, unencrypted PDF within 50 MB and 150 pages. It processes every page in that input. To rasterize only a section, first extract those pages into a separate PDF. Do not expect unselected original pages to pass through this operation.
Choose resolution and create the PDF
- Open Rasterize PDF and choose the working copy.
- Use the default settings or enable Use custom image settings to apply the Resolution and Image quality controls. The supported inputs are 36–300 DPI and 5–100% image quality.
- For a comparison, try custom settings such as 144 DPI and 75% quality on a short document. These are example inputs, not a promise of a particular file size or print quality.
- Optionally choose grayscale, then select Rasterize PDF and download the result.
Check a two-page example
If the input has two pages, the output should also contain two pages in the same order. Inspect a small-text area and a thin diagram line at normal viewing size and at a closer zoom. Check the first and last pages and compare their dimensions with the source.
Increasing the requested DPI usually provides more pixels, at a cost in file size and memory. Very large page dimensions can reduce the effective resolution because rendering is capped to protect device memory. A high quality percentage does not mean lossless output.
What to review after downloading
Text that was selectable before should now be part of the page image. A search or copy test can help check that change, but it is not a security or accessibility certification. Inspect small text, colours and page edges before accepting the result.
Rasterization is not a verified redaction workflow. If you later need searchable text, English OCR can add a new recognized layer to a copy, but recognition errors need review and it does not restore the original structure or interactive features.
Prepared by PDF Tools Club · Updated October 18, 2026. Instructions reflect this release’s controls and limits.