I have a PDF of scanned lecture notes and need the pages as separate JPG images for class. Is there an easy way to convert them without losing readability?
had the same thing last month with some notes i scanned. i opened the pdf in my browser, zoomed in a bit, and just screenshotted each page then cropped in photos. tbh it stayed readable for class without needing extra programs. if the scans are already decent it should be fine.
If the PDF is just scanned pages, export at 300 dpi or higher so the small handwriting stays readable. Adobe Acrobat’s Export PDF works, and PDFcap or Preview can do it too depending on your device. On Windows, I usually use PDF-XChange Editor or ImageMagick for batch pages. Do you need every page as a JPG, or only a few selected ones?
Since the pages are scans, each one is already a single image inside the PDF, so you want to extract them rather than reconvert. Easy options: 1) upload to iLovePDF or pdfcap and pick extract images, or 2) run pdfimages -j notes.pdf out if you’re ok with the command line. Both keep the original resolution, so you get seperate jpgs that stay readable. I do this all the time at the campus help desk.
Use PDF-XChange Editor’s “Export to Images” and choose JPG at 300 dpi with quality around 90; it will save each page separately. Avoid screenshots or heavy compression, since small handwriting gets blurry fast.