What JPG to PDF keeps and what it removes
A PDF from JPG to PDF holds one page per photo, in your order, each showing the picture you saw on its card. It is worth knowing what else a JPG carries, and which of it reaches the PDF, before you send the file to someone.
The photo itself
- Most JPGs keep their image data. With Quality first, ordinary JPEGs go into the PDF directly; their compressed data is copied, not saved again.
- Some JPGs are re-encoded. This version converts CMYK, 12-bit and a few rare kinds of JPEG instead of placing them directly: when your browser can decode them, they are saved again as a high-quality JPEG, and their cards say so. A file the browser can’t decode gets an error card instead and doesn’t become a page.
- Some photos may get fewer pixels. With Smaller file, each photo gets a candidate of at most 2000 px on the long side (a very long or wide image keeps at least 600 px on its short side), used only where it makes the file smaller; otherwise the photo keeps its Quality first version. A decoded image that is larger than the device limit is scaled down, also with Quality first. JPEG quality and PDF size explains both.
The direction your camera recorded is applied as a turn of the page content, not by redrawing the pixels, and your own rotations are added on top. Each page stands the way its card showed it.
Colour
A JPG that goes in directly keeps its embedded colour profile when it has a valid one, so its colours are described the way the camera or scanner intended. A JPG that this version re-encodes, such as a CMYK file, is converted to standard RGB colour first.
Hidden details in your photos
A JPG often carries far more than the picture: where it was taken, the phone or camera model, the date and time, editing software, sometimes a second, smaller image placed after the main one. None of this is written into the PDF:
- Removed from every photo: EXIF data, including GPS location, camera make and model and dates; XMP data; comments; extra images stored after the main picture; and other application data.
- Kept: the colour profile, because it changes how the photo looks.
- The PDF itself has no title, author or creation details filled in, and it does not contain your file names. It is named after the day it was made, such as images-2026-10-03.pdf.
This removes hidden data, not what you can see. A house number, a face, a name on a receipt or a car’s number plate is part of the picture and stays in the PDF. Look through the pages before you share them.
Text in your photos
Text in a photo stays a picture of text. You can read it in the PDF, but you cannot select it, copy it or search for it, and a screen reader cannot read it aloud. JPG to PDF does not recognise text (it does not run OCR). A scanned contract saved as JPG becomes a PDF of images of its pages, not a text document.
The real limits
- Memory. The photos are processed in your browser, so how many photos, and how large, depends on your device’s memory. On a phone, a long list of big photos may be too much at once; make the PDF in parts.
- Sharing. Share appears only where the browser can share files. Otherwise, download the PDF and send it from your files.
- The PDF is not a backup. File names and hidden details are gone, and converted or reduced photos are not your originals. Keep your JPG files.
Your original photos are not changed. They are read on your device, and nothing is uploaded.
Make your PDF in the browser → JPG to PDF