Free Image to PDF

Worked example

Drop one 4032×3024 JPEG from a phone. The page shows "PDF settings" with "Page size" on A4, "Orientation" on "Auto", "File size" on "Original" and "Margin" at 20pt. Press "Generate PDF from 1 image". The photo is wider than tall and Orientation is Auto, so the page is A4 landscape, 841.89 × 595.28 pt, and the photo is scaled to 740 × 555 pt and centred inside the 20 pt margin. A card says "Your PDF is ready" with the size and "1 page", the "File name" box suggests the photo's own name ending in .pdf, and the button reads "Download PDF". A JPEG with no rotation is embedded as it is. Change "File size" to "Balanced" and the picture is shrunk to 1542 × 1157 px, about 150 dpi at that size, and saved as JPEG at 82%. Choose "Fit to image" and the page becomes 842 × 641.5 pt.

Which settings to use, and the limits

• Choose the page size and orientation. "Page size" offers A4 (595.28 × 841.89 pt), Letter (612 × 792 pt) and "Fit to image". With A4 or Letter, "Orientation" is "Auto" (a landscape page for a picture wider than tall), "Portrait" or "Landscape", and each image goes on its own page, scaled to fit inside the margin without cropping. "Fill the page (crop edges)" scales it to cover the area instead and clips the overflow. "Fit to image" makes each page the shape of its image, with the longest side held to 842 pt.
• Use "File size" to shrink the PDF. "Original" embeds JPEG and PNG files as they are; a JPEG that is rotated or carries a rotation tag is re-saved at 92% quality, and WebP, GIF, BMP and AVIF files are always re-saved as JPEG. "Balanced" shrinks pictures to about 150 dpi at the size they print on the page and saves JPEG at 82%. "Small" uses about 100 dpi and 70%. A picture that would shrink by less than 5% is left alone. When a picture is shrunk it becomes JPEG on a white background, so transparent PNGs lose their transparency.
• Expect iPhone photos to become PNG. HEIC and HEIF photos are converted to PNG when you add them, and the page shows "Converting HEIC photos..." or "Converting your iPhone photo…" while it works. On "Original" a PNG is embedded losslessly at full resolution, so a PDF of HEIC photos can be large. Choose "Balanced" or "Small" to turn them into JPEG at a lower resolution.
• Set margins in the unit you think in. "Margin" has unit buttons pt, mm and in. The slider runs 0 to 50 pt in steps of 1, 0 to 20 mm in steps of 1, or 0 to 0.75 in in steps of 0.05, and starts at 20 pt. Switching unit converts the value, so 20 pt becomes 7 mm or 0.3 in. With "Fit to image" the margin is added around each picture.
• Order, rotate and name the pages. Each image is one page, numbered in the list. Drag a row to reorder it, or use "Move up" and "Move down". "Rotate 90°" turns a picture 90° clockwise each press, on top of any rotation stored in the photo. After the PDF is ready, "File name" sets its name (up to 120 characters, with characters such as / \ : * ? " < > | removed and .pdf added). Left blank, one image gives scan.pdf for scan.png, and several give a name like IMG_0001-3-images.pdf.
• Know which files are accepted. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF and HEIC are accepted. "+ Add more images" adds to the list. A file with the same name and size as one already added is skipped with a note such as "1 duplicate skipped (already added): scan.png", and an unsupported file is skipped with "1 file skipped (not a supported image): map.tif".

Common problems and how to fix them

It says "Failed to load photo.webp. The file may be corrupted or unsupported."

The browser could not decode that file, both directly and through the fallback image loader. The run stops at that file and no PDF is made. Remove that image (with its remove button, or "Clear all"), or re-save it as JPG or PNG, and generate again.

It says "Something went wrong. Please try again."

This covers any other failure while building the PDF, such as the browser refusing to make a canvas or to encode a picture. That only happens when a picture has to be redrawn: when it is rotated, is not a JPEG or PNG, or when "File size" is not "Original". Try fewer images at once, or leave "File size" on "Original" with unrotated JPEG and PNG files, which are embedded without being redrawn.

It says "Only image files are accepted (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, HEIC)."

Every file you added was skipped. A file is skipped if it is empty (0 bytes, typical of a OneDrive or iCloud file that was never downloaded), if it is a HEIC that could not be converted, or if its type is outside the list, such as SVG or TIFF. A note names the skipped files. Convert them to JPG or PNG, or download cloud files to the device first.

The PDF is much larger than you expected, or too big for an upload form.

"Original" keeps every picture at full resolution: JPEGs untouched, PNGs lossless, and HEIC photos converted to PNG, so a set of big photos makes a big PDF. Set "File size" to "Balanced" (about 150 dpi, JPEG 82%) or "Small" (about 100 dpi, JPEG 70%), then press generate again. The size appears next to the page count when the PDF is ready.

The photo is cropped at the edges of the page.

"Fill the page (crop edges)" is ticked. It scales the picture until it covers the area inside the margins and clips whatever sticks out. Untick it to fit the whole picture on the page, or choose "Fit to image" so the page takes the picture's shape.

How it compares

A desktop PDF program, or the print-to-PDF function of a photo app, gives more control: text, annotations, page numbers, a different page size per page and compression profiles. This tool does one job. It puts one image on each page, in the order you set, with a page size, margin, rotation and a file-size preset, and saves one PDF. It does not add text or run OCR, and it cannot place two images on one page. The same page size and margin apply to every page, except with "Fit to image", where each page follows its picture. In exchange there is nothing to install, and nothing is uploaded: the PDF is built in your browser.