How to Convert Images to PDF on Windows

Turn images into a PDF when someone expects a single document that opens anywhere and prints on normal paper.

Expense systems, application portals and government forms often take one PDF per submission. A PDF also keeps the pages in a fixed order, which a folder of photos can't, and it prints at a predictable size.

Windows turns pictures into a PDF through its built-in virtual printer. Select the images in File Explorer, right-click and choose Print (on Windows 11 you may need Show more options first). In the Print Pictures dialog, choose Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer, pick the paper size and a layout such as Full page photo, click Print and name the PDF.

Two things need attention. Fit picture to frame fills each frame by cutting off the edges of the picture, so clear it to keep whole images. And the dialog has no page list to rearrange: the pages follow the order the files have in File Explorer, so give them numbered names, sort by name before you select them, and check the order in the finished PDF.

File Acture's Images to PDF combines JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, GIF and BMP images into one PDF, one image per page. HEIC and AVIF are read through the image codecs Windows provides, the same ones the Photos app uses: if Windows can't show your HEIC photos, install Microsoft's HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions first (for AVIF, the AV1 Video Extension).

Drag the files in the list into page order, then choose a Page size and a Margin, type a File name under Result and click Create PDF. The PDF is saved in the folder you choose under Output, and the images themselves stay untouched.

JPEG photos are embedded byte for byte, so they don't lose any quality, and a PDF made from them ends up about as large as the photos themselves; only their metadata, such as camera details and location, is left out. Other images are stored losslessly when they have transparency and as high-quality JPEG otherwise, which keeps small text in screenshots readable. Photos appear upright and keep their color profiles, and nothing is uploaded along the way.

Choose A4 or US Letter when the PDF will be printed or added to other documents, and Fit to image when it will only be viewed on screen.

• Fit to image: each page takes the size of its image at 150 DPI, so there are no white borders.
• A4 and US Letter: each image is fitted on a standard page and turned to landscape when the image is wider than it is tall.
• Margin: None, Small (a quarter inch) or Large (half an inch). A small margin keeps printers from cutting off the edges.

The order of the file list is the order of the pages, so arrange the list before you click Create PDF.

Files join the list in the order you add them. Drag rows up or down to move them, or give the images numbered names such as 01, 02 and 03 and add them from a File Explorer window sorted by name. Removing a file from the list takes it out of the PDF without touching the image itself.

A tidy image PDF comes from the right page size and margins, plus OCR or compression afterwards when the file needs them.

• Need searchable text? Run OCR PDF on the result, so the words in photographed documents can be found.
• Too big to upload? Compress the PDF to a target size such as 2 MB instead of shrinking each photo by hand.
• Animated GIFs contribute only their first frame.
• Going the other way? Convert PDF pages to JPG.
• Longer documents: the free version takes up to 5 images per run, with 3 runs on each PC. Pro has no limit; see pricing.

No: File Acture leaves photo metadata out of the PDF, so the GPS position stored in many phone photos doesn't travel with your document.

Online converters, by contrast, need your photos on their servers before they can build anything. File Acture builds the PDF on your PC, so neither the images nor where they were taken leave it.

If the PDF is going to an application portal, check its size limit first.