Conversion Quality Expectations

Compression trades detail for size

Lossy formats like JPG and WEBP, and the image/PDF compressors, reduce file size by discarding some detail. Higher compression means smaller files but softer images; PNG stays lossless but larger.

PDF-to-image depends on resolution

Each PDF page is rendered to a raster image at a set resolution. Higher resolution looks sharper but produces larger files; very fine text or thin lines can soften at lower settings.

Vector to raster is one-way

Rasterizing an SVG to JPG or PNG works cleanly, but the result is a fixed-resolution image — it can no longer be scaled infinitely like the original vector.

OCR accuracy varies with the source

Text recognition (OCR) is highly accurate on clean, high-contrast scans. Low-resolution, skewed, handwritten, or noisy images will produce more errors — review the extracted text before relying on it.

Text extraction drops layout

Extracting text from a PDF preserves the words but not the original page layout, columns, or styling.

Recommended workflow

Always review converted output, compare to the original where critical, and retain a backup of the source file.