How to Turn a JPEG into a PDF on Mac and Windows, Without Software

The job portal wants your transcripts as a PDF, the DMV or your tax preparer wants the document, your landlord wants proof of income, and all you have is a JPG on your laptop? You don’t need software like Adobe Acrobat for this. Mac and Windows can save an image as a PDF on their own. Windows likes to cut off the edges, though, and you can hardly set the order or the file size. Here are the methods and what to watch out for.

Which method is right for you?

For a single image you keep yourself, the built-in method is enough. If the PDF goes to a portal, a school or an office, three things matter: the whole image is on the page, the pages are in the right order, and the file is under the size limit.

How to convert an image to PDF on a Mac: Preview and Finder

On a Mac you don’t need any software. Preview is already installed.

• One image: Double-click it to open it in Preview and choose File and Export as PDF. The PDF page is then the same size as the image.
• Several images, fast: Select the images in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions and Create PDF. The PDF lands in the same folder.
• Several images on Letter pages: Open them all together in Preview, drag the thumbnails in the sidebar into the right order, select them all and choose File, Print, paper size US Letter, then PDF at the bottom left and Save as PDF.

This also works the same way for PNG files and screenshots. The Mac doesn’t crop anything. But there’s no good setting for file size. The Reduce File Size Quartz filter when exporting often makes photos so blurry that text is barely readable.

How to convert a JPG to PDF on a Windows laptop: Microsoft Print to PDF

Windows comes with a PDF printer. You don’t print anything on paper. You save the printout as a file.

Step 4 is the most important. If the box is checked, Windows fills the whole page and cuts off whatever sticks out. With a photo of a transcript, the top edge or the signature then goes missing. Check the preview on the left before you print.

From the Photos app: If the image is open in the Photos app, press Ctrl + P and choose Microsoft Print to PDF as well. Here too, make sure in the print settings that the image fits inside the page and isn’t stretched to fill it.

Several images: Select them in File Explorer first, then go through Print. Each image becomes a page in one PDF. The order follows the sorting in File Explorer. You can only change it by renaming the files, for example to 01, 02, 03.

In your browser: the same on every computer

The browser method makes sense when the PDF goes to a portal, an office or an employer, or when you’re not on your own computer.

1. Open Image to PDF and drag your images into the box.
2. Drag them into the right order.
3. Under Page, choose Letter, A4 or Fit image, add a margin if needed and set File size to Smaller.
4. Click Create PDF and Download PDF.

The image is always placed fully on the page, nothing gets cut off. Image to PDF takes JPG, PNG, WebP and HEIC photos from your iPhone, mixed in any way. If you only have JPGs, JPG to PDF works the same way. The images are processed in your browser and not uploaded to a server. That matters for transcripts, IDs and pay stubs.

How to combine many photos neatly, on your phone too, is shown in the guide How to combine multiple photos into one PDF.

The PDF is too large: what helps?

Photos from phones and cameras are often several megabytes each. Windows keeps them at full size. Just five photos can produce a PDF that an upload portal with a 2 or 5 MB limit rejects.

• In the browser tool, set File size to Smaller. Each image is then limited to 2,400 pixels on the long side. That’s enough for the screen and a printed page.
• Crop the images first, so only the document is visible.
• Split many images into two PDFs if the portal accepts several files.

Check before you upload

• Is the whole image on the page, with all edges and the signature?
• Is the order right, and is every page upright?
• Is the file under the portal’s size limit?
• Does the PDF have a clear name, for example “transcript-jane-doe.pdf”?

• Mac: Preview, File, Export as PDF, or Create PDF in Finder. No software needed.
• Windows: right-click, Print, Microsoft Print to PDF.
• Important on Windows: uncheck Fit picture to frame, or the edges go missing.
• You can hardly control order and file size with the built-in tools. In the browser you can.
• Image to PDF also takes PNG, HEIC and WebP, with no server upload.