Java PDF to Image file

1. Introduction

Converting PDF pages/document to image files such as JPEG image, PNG or TIFF has many applications in software industry. Sometimes, you need an image of specific pages of PDF file to use somewhere but your only option is image screenshot of the page. Imagine you are working on your Java project that has a functionality to load and convert PDF page to image files and use them for other purposes. Using traditional Java code, the conversion is near to impossible. For that purpose, we will use IronPDF for Java.

2. IronPDF for Java

IronPDF for Java is a package that allows you to create, prepare, and manage PDF files. It is popular among developers because of its PDF document generation component, which allows them to read PDF, generate/create, and modify PDF files without the need for Adobe Acrobat. IronPDF for Java supports custom headers/footers, signatures, attachments, passwords, and security mechanisms. One of the improved performance features is full multithreading and async support. IronPDF for Java works with Maven based projects.

Below we will discuss how to convert PDF pages to image formats like JPEG image, JPG or PNG images using Java.

3. Prerequisites

Before we get started, there are a few points that must be present to carry out this conversion.

1. Java should be installed in the system and its path should be set in Environment Variables. Please refer to this link to install Java if you don't have before.
2. A good Java IDE should be installed, like Eclipse or IntelliJ. To download Eclipse, please visit this link and to download IntelliJ, please click on this link.
3. Maven should be integrated with the IDE before starting with conversion. For the tutorial of installing Maven and integrating it to the environment, visit the following link[link].

4. IronPDF for Java Installation

Once all the prerequisites are fulfilled, installing IronPDF for Java is quite simple and easy for even new Java developers.

To use IronPDF for Java, first you need an IDE. For this article, we will use JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA to install the required dependencies and run examples.

First, open JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA and create new Maven project.

Create a new Maven Project

A new window will appear. Enter the name of project and click on Finish.

New Project Name

After you click finish, a new project will open and by default pom.xml is opened in the project which is good because we need to add Maven dependencies of IronPDF for Java.

New Project

Add the following dependencies in pom.xml file or you can download API's JAR file from the following link.

<dependency>
   <groupId>com.ironsoftware</groupId>
   <artifactId>com.ironsoftware</artifactId>
   <version>2024.3.1</version>
</dependency>

Once you place the dependencies in the pom.xml file, a small icon will appear in the right top corner of the window.

Maven Dependencies

Click on this icon to install the Maven dependencies. This will only take a few minutes depending on your internet connection.

5. Convert PDF File to Images using IronPDF for Java

Using IronPDF for Java, PDF to image conversion such as JPEG is just a few lines of code. It converts input PDF document into the output stream of images. It the toBufferedImages method that returns a list containing a collection of BufferedImage objects, and it is arranged in ascending order corresponding with page numbers.

Using IronPDF for Java you cannot only generate images from PDF documents, but you can also create images from URLs and HTML directly.

5.1. Converting PDF Document to Images

In this following example, we will convert the entire PDF document into images. To get started, just write the following code and run the program.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.PdfDocument;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.edit.PageSelection;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.image.ToImageOptions;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;

public class main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        PdfDocument instance = PdfDocument.fromFile(Paths.get("business plan.pdf"));
        List<BufferedImage> extractedImages = instance.toBufferedImages();
        ToImageOptions rasterOptions = new ToImageOptions();
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);

        List<BufferedImage> sizedExtractedImages = instance.toBufferedImages(rasterOptions, PageSelection.allPages());
        int pageIndex = 1;
        for (BufferedImage extractedImage : sizedExtractedImages) {
            String fileName = "assets/images/" + pageIndex++ + ".png";
            ImageIO.write(extractedImage, "PNG", new File(fileName));
        }
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.PdfDocument;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.edit.PageSelection;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.image.ToImageOptions;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;

public class main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        PdfDocument instance = PdfDocument.fromFile(Paths.get("business plan.pdf"));
        List<BufferedImage> extractedImages = instance.toBufferedImages();
        ToImageOptions rasterOptions = new ToImageOptions();
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);

        List<BufferedImage> sizedExtractedImages = instance.toBufferedImages(rasterOptions, PageSelection.allPages());
        int pageIndex = 1;
        for (BufferedImage extractedImage : sizedExtractedImages) {
            String fileName = "assets/images/" + pageIndex++ + ".png";
            ImageIO.write(extractedImage, "PNG", new File(fileName));
        }
    }
}

The output of the following example will be saved in the assets folder of your project (create this folder before running the program) with numbering starting from 1 and will be incremented for all the PDF pages.

PDF to Images Output

5.2. Converting URL to PDF and PDF to Images

Using IronPDF for Java, you can convert HTML to PDF directly, and then convert each page of the generated PDF to images.

For the next example, we will use the Amazon website. The program below will render a page on Amazon.com into PDF and then output each page of the PDF as images stored in an assets folder.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.PdfDocument;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.edit.PageSelection;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.image.ToImageOptions;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;

public class main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        PdfDocument pdf = PdfDocument.renderUrlAsPdf("https://www.amazon.com/?tag=hp2-brobookmark-us-20");
        List<BufferedImage> extractedImages = pdf.toBufferedImages();
        ToImageOptions rasterOptions = new ToImageOptions();
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);
        List<BufferedImage> sizedExtractedImages = pdf.toBufferedImages(rasterOptions, PageSelection.allPages());
        int i = 1;
        for (BufferedImage extractedImage : sizedExtractedImages) {
            String fileName = "assets/images/" + i++ + ".png";
            ImageIO.write(extractedImage, "PNG", new File(fileName));
        }
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.PdfDocument;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.edit.PageSelection;
import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.image.ToImageOptions;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;

public class main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        PdfDocument pdf = PdfDocument.renderUrlAsPdf("https://www.amazon.com/?tag=hp2-brobookmark-us-20");
        List<BufferedImage> extractedImages = pdf.toBufferedImages();
        ToImageOptions rasterOptions = new ToImageOptions();
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
        rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);
        List<BufferedImage> sizedExtractedImages = pdf.toBufferedImages(rasterOptions, PageSelection.allPages());
        int i = 1;
        for (BufferedImage extractedImage : sizedExtractedImages) {
            String fileName = "assets/images/" + i++ + ".png";
            ImageIO.write(extractedImage, "PNG", new File(fileName));
        }
    }
}

PDF to Images Output

Adjust the resolution of the images created from the example above by replacing the calls to the ToImageOptions instance with the ones below:

rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);

rasterOptions.setImageMaxHeight(800);
rasterOptions.setImageMaxWidth(500);

The two lines of code above adjusts the width and height that each of the generated images will have when toBufferedImage is invoked.

6. Conclusion

This How-To Guide shows how to convert PDFs into images using IronPDF for Java. The PDF page images produced from IronPDF contain both the page number and the name of the document, as shown in the previous examples. IronPDF can generate images in different formats: JPEG, JPG, TIFF and many more.

IronPDF also gives full control over the output image resolution to its users. To know more about IronPDF for Java and to access additional How-To Guides on how to manipulate PDF using Java, please refer to the following link. For more information about how to convert a PDF to images, go to this link.

IronPDF for Java is free for development purposes. but requires a license for commercial use. Get more additional information about the license here.