pdf2jpg

Convert PDF files to JPEG images with pdftoppm, support optional page ranges, and bundle generated JPGs into a zip archive for sharing. Use when a user wants to turn a PDF into page images, extract selected pages, or package the results. Requires poppler-utils / pdftoppm.

Overview

Convert a PDF into JPEG page images using pdftoppm from poppler-utils, then optionally zip the generated JPGs.

Requirements

• pdftoppm must be available in PATH
• Install the poppler-utils package before running the scripts

Install poppler-utils

• Debian / Ubuntu:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install -y poppler-utils
  

• Windows:

  • Install Poppler via a package manager, then make pdftoppm.exe available in your PATH
  • Common options:
    • winget install -e --id oschwartz10612.Poppler
    • choco install poppler
    • scoop install poppler

• macOS:

  brew install poppler
  

Standard workflow

1. Convert the PDF with scripts/pdf2jpg.sh
2. Bundle the output images with scripts/zip_jpgs.sh if needed

./scripts/pdf2jpg.sh input.pdf
./scripts/pdf2jpg.sh input.pdf 2 5
./scripts/zip_jpgs.sh input.pdf
./scripts/zip_jpgs.sh input.pdf /tmp/output.zip

Scripts

scripts/pdf2jpg.sh

• Prompts for the PDF path if none is supplied
• Verifies the input file exists
• Verifies pdftoppm is installed and prints a poppler-utils install hint if not
• Writes JPEGs beside the PDF using the PDF basename as the output prefix
• Accepts optional first and last page arguments

scripts/zip_jpgs.sh

• Finds matching basename-*.jpg files for the PDF
• Creates a zip archive containing those JPGs
• Uses ${base}-jpgs.zip by default when no output path is supplied

Notes

• Output files follow the pdftoppm naming convention, typically basename-1.jpg, basename-2.jpg, etc.
• If you need different image quality, output naming, or archive behavior, edit the bundled scripts rather than reimplementing the command inline.