Last updated:
The one thing PNGs do differently: transparency
A PDF page has no alpha channel in the way a PNG does. Anything transparent has to become something when it is placed, and here it becomes white — the colour of the page underneath. That is the behaviour you want almost every time, and it is worth knowing in advance in the two cases where it surprises people:
- A white logo exported on a transparent background vanishes. It is still there; it is white on white. Export it in a dark colour, or on its intended background, before building the PDF.
- A UI screenshot with rounded corners gains white corners rather than keeping the colour of whatever was behind it on your screen.
What PNGs are usually for here
The mix is different from photographs, and so is the advice:
- Screenshots collected into a report, a bug write-up or a step-by-step guide. Order matters more than anything else; drag them into sequence below.
- Diagrams, charts and exported slides, where hard edges and flat colour survive perfectly — PNG is lossless, and nothing is re-encoded on the way in.
- Line art and logos headed for print. If it is going to a printer rather than a screen, consider tagging the source at 600 DPI first: hard edges are exactly where the difference shows.
Screenshots print smaller than people expect
A screenshot from a 1440 × 900 laptop display contains 1440 × 900 pixels. Placed at A4 width it will look soft, because A4 at 300 DPI wants 2480 pixels across. Nothing can add the missing detail. If the PDF is only going to be read on screen it does not matter at all; if it is going to be printed, capture at a higher resolution or accept a smaller placed size.
Nothing leaves your device
Screenshots are the single most sensitive category of image most people handle — dashboards, invoices, private messages, half a password manager in a browser tab. This page assembles the PDF in your browser; the project has no API route that accepts a file, so there is nowhere for a screenshot to go.
How to convert PNG to PDF
Step 1: Add your PNG files
Drag them onto the box above, or click to pick several at once.
Step 2: Order the pages
Drag the thumbnails into sequence. For a set of screenshots this is usually the whole job.
Step 3: Pick page size and orientation
A4 or Letter if it will be printed; fit-to-image to keep each screenshot at its own proportions.
Step 4: Build and download
Press the button and the PDF downloads. Nothing was uploaded to produce it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to transparent areas in my PNG?
They are rendered white, which is the colour of the PDF page. A white logo on a transparent background will therefore disappear — export it on its intended background first.
Does converting to PDF reduce the quality of a PNG?
The image data is placed as-is; nothing is resampled. What can look worse is a low-resolution screenshot blown up to fill a page, which is a placement decision rather than a conversion loss.
Can I combine PNG and JPG into one PDF?
Yes. Add both kinds together and order them as one sequence — see also JPG to PDF.
Is there a limit on the number of PNGs?
None that we impose. The limit is your browser’s memory, which comfortably handles the sizes screenshots come in.