The Event Venue That Couldn't Post Their Own Flyers on Instagram
I was helping a small concert venue get their social media together. Their designer delivered event flyers as PDFs — professional, properly typeset, ready for print. But Instagram doesn't accept PDFs. Neither does Facebook events, Twitter cards, or any email newsletter builder. Every time a new show was announced, someone had to manually screenshot the flyer on a laptop and crop it, which is exactly as inconsistent as it sounds. Converting the PDF to JPG at 200 DPI gave them a clean, full-resolution image file they could post directly. Now it's the first thing they do whenever a new flyer lands in their inbox.
How to use this converter
- Upload your PDF (up to 30 files at once).
- Set output resolution — higher DPI (like 200–300) for crisp text; lower for smaller files.
- Set how many pages per PDF to convert.
- Click Convert.
- Download individual JPGs or a ZIP for multiple pages.
Upload PDFs
Or click “Choose files” to select PDFs
DPI to pixels: what your resolution setting actually produces
The DPI field controls the pixel dimensions of the output image—nothing more, nothing less. A PDF doesn’t store pixels; it stores instructions that a renderer draws at the resolution you specify. Choose a DPI that matches how the image will be used. Higher DPI = more pixels = larger file.
| DPI | Letter page (8.5×11 in) | A4 page (8.27×11.69 in) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | 612 × 792 px | 595 × 842 px | Quick thumbnail previews; small file size |
| 96 | 816 × 1056 px | 794 × 1123 px | Screen viewing at 1× zoom; basic web previews |
| 150 | 1275 × 1650 px | 1240 × 1754 px | Readable body text on screen; the practical minimum |
| 200 | 1700 × 2200 px | 1654 × 2339 px | Charts, tables, small captions; recommended default |
| 300 | 2550 × 3300 px | 2480 × 3508 px | Print-standard; technical diagrams; fine text |
Note: Non-letter, non-A4 PDFs scale proportionally from their defined page size.
Custom-sized PDFs (slides, posters, receipts) produce different pixel dimensions at the same DPI.
The formula is always: pixels = inches × DPI.
The DPI lesson I learned the embarrassing way
My first conversion attempt used the default 72 DPI setting. The flyer came out at 595×842 pixels — technically an image, but the small event details (support act names, door time, ticket price) were barely readable at normal screen size and completely illegible when Instagram compressed it further. I converted again at 200 DPI. The same page came out at 1654×2339 pixels, every line of text sharp and clear, the QR code for tickets actually scannable. That one setting — DPI — is the whole conversation for PDF-to-JPG quality.
What DPI to use — and when each setting makes sense
A PDF doesn't contain pixels — it contains rendering instructions. When you convert to JPG, the converter draws those instructions onto a pixel canvas at whatever resolution you choose. That's what DPI controls. Here's how I think about it:
- 72 DPI: Fast, small file, readable at a glance but not under scrutiny. Good for thumbnails and quick previews where you just need a rough visual. Small text will be blurry.
- 150 DPI: The practical minimum for most social posts. Body text is readable, the overall image looks clean. Use this when file size matters and the flyer doesn't have very small type.
- 200 DPI: My default for everything. Text is sharp, fine details hold up, and the file is still a reasonable size. Works for Instagram, newsletters, slide decks, and most upload forms.
- 300 DPI: For PDFs with detailed charts, technical diagrams, or dense small print. Also the right choice if the converted JPG will itself be printed. Files will be large — expect a few MB per page.
When in doubt, 200 DPI. It's right for the majority of use cases and doesn't produce bloated files.
All the places PDFs get stuck — and JPGs don't
The venue situation is just one version of a problem I see constantly. PDFs are everywhere in professional workflows — designers deliver them, clients email them, organisations share reports in them. But once a PDF leaves document-land it hits walls:
- Social media: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter — none accept PDF for image posts. A JPG drops straight in.
- Upload forms: Job applications, school portals, government forms, and marketplace backends commonly accept JPG/PNG but not PDF for image fields.
- Email newsletters: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Substack — embedding a PDF flyer inline isn't possible. Embedding a JPG is one drag and drop.
- Slide decks: Extracting a chart or diagram from a PDF report into PowerPoint or Google Slides means converting the page to an image first.
- Client previews: Sending a JPG preview of a document means the recipient can open it in anything — their phone gallery, a browser, a mail client — without needing a PDF reader.
When JPG isn't the right output for your PDF
JPG works well for event flyers, photos embedded in PDFs, and mixed-content pages. It's less ideal in a few situations:
- PDFs that are mostly text: JPG compression creates halos around letterforms, especially visible on small body text. For text-heavy documents, the output looks subtly degraded compared to PNG. Use a higher DPI setting (200+) to minimize this.
- Pages with solid colored backgrounds: JPG's block compression can produce faint artifacts on flat color areas. PNG avoids this entirely at the cost of larger files.
- Pages you plan to edit afterward: Start with PNG as an intermediate format if you're going to crop, recolor, or add overlays — PNG doesn't accumulate compression damage on re-save the way JPG does.
Files processed privately — deleted on completion
PDFs often contain contracts, financial statements, and private documents. Files are uploaded over HTTPS, processed in temporary storage, and both the PDF and all generated JPGs are deleted automatically when the conversion finishes. No account required, no retention.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my converted JPG look blurry even at the highest DPI?
The most common cause is using 72 DPI for a page with small text — at that resolution, 8pt type is around 8 pixels tall, which isn't enough to render clearly. Increase to 200 or 300 DPI. Also note: some PDFs embed low-resolution images in their content, and those will look poor at any output DPI.
My PDF has 40 pages. Do I have to convert them all?
No. Use the "max pages" setting to limit how many pages are converted per PDF. If you only need the first two pages, set the limit to 2 and the rest are ignored.
Why can't I copy the text from the converted JPG?
PDF to JPG is a rendering process. The output is a pixel image of the page — text is rendered as pixels, not as selectable characters. If you need searchable or copyable text, you need an OCR tool or a PDF-to-Word conversion, not an image converter.
Can I convert a scanned PDF?
Yes. Scanned PDFs are essentially images stored inside a PDF container — they convert straightforwardly. The output JPG will be a re-rendered version of the scanned page at whatever DPI you set.
Are my PDFs stored after conversion?
No. Files are deleted automatically as soon as the conversion job completes.
Does this work on mobile?
Yes. Open Plomz in any modern mobile browser, upload your PDF from your files app, and download the JPG. No app required.
Other tools you might find useful
Resize image · Remove image background · Convert HEIC to JPG
Explore more free tools
Need a different format or workflow? These tools are part of the same Plomz toolkit and work the same way.