Convert PDF to Image in Linux

To convert a PDF file to an image, send a multipart request to the /build API endpoint, including both the source document and the instructions JSON. In response, you’ll receive a ZIP archive containing all of the document’s pages as images.

Rendering a document requires you to provide dimensions for the rendered pages via a width, height, or dpi option.

Only one option — width, height, or dpi — can be chosen. Other dimensions are calculated before rendering, so as to preserve the page aspect ratio of the rendered image.

The format of the rendered images can be controlled via a format option. Supported image formats are PNG, JPEG, WEBP, and TIFF.

Before you get started, make sure Processor is up and running.

You can download and use either of the following sample documents for the examples in this guide:

You’ll be sending multipart POST requests with instructions to Processor’s /build endpoint. To learn more about multipart requests, refer to our blog post on the topic, A Brief Tour of Multipart Requests.

Check out the API Reference to learn more about the /build endpoint and all the actions you can perform on PDFs with PSPDFKit Processor.

Converting a PDF File on Disk to an Image

Send a multipart request to the /build endpoint, attaching an input file and the instructions JSON:

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/build \
  -F document=@/path/to/example-document.pdf \
  -F instructions='{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "type": "image",
    "format": "png",
    "pages": {
      "start": 0,
      "end": 2
    }
  }
}' \
  -o result.zip
POST /process HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=customboundary

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="example-document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

<PDF data>
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "type": "image",
    "format": "png",
    "pages": {
      "start": 0,
      "end": 2
    }
  }
}
--customboundary--

Converting a PDF File from a URL to an Image

Send a multipart request to the /build endpoint, attaching a URL pointing to an input file and the instructions JSON:

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/build \
  -F instructions='{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": {
        "url": "https://pspdfkit.com/downloads/examples/paper.pdf"
      }
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "type": "image",
    "format": "png",
    "pages": {
      "start": 1,
      "end": 1
    }
  }
}' \
  -o output-image.png
POST /process HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=customboundary

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": {
        "url": "https://pspdfkit.com/downloads/examples/paper.pdf"
      }
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "type": "image",
    "format": "png",
    "pages": {
      "start": 1,
      "end": 1
    }
  }
}
--customboundary--