Extract images from PDF without Adobe Acrobat

Yes, you can. Acrobat Pro does have the feature. The steps are:

The catch is the price. Pro is a paid subscription, and the free Reader doesn’t include this feature.

Other online services offer similar tools. iLovePDF, Smallpdf, and Sejda are common examples. Their free plans often have limits on file size or daily tasks. Check their current terms before you rely on them.

Which method should you use?

Here’s a quick comparison of every option in this guide.

The best way to extract images from PDF depends on the job. For one file, use the online tool. For hundreds, use a script.

Extract images from PDF on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Windows. There’s no built-in way to extract embedded images. The Snipping Tool only takes screenshots. Use an online extractor, or install Poppler or Python.

Mac. Preview exports pages as images. It doesn’t pull out embedded pictures. To extract images from PDF on a Mac in bulk, use an online tool. You can also install Poppler with Homebrew: brew install poppler.

Linux. The command line is the best option here. Install Poppler first:

sudo apt install poppler-utils

Then run:

pdfimages -all input.pdf output-prefix

The -all flag keeps JPEG images in their native format and saves the rest as PNG or TIFF. Run pdfimages -list input.pdf first if you want to see what’s inside. This is the standard way to extract images from PDF on the command line.

Extract images from PDF with Python

The -all flag keeps JPEG images in their native format and saves the rest as PNG or TIFF. Run pdfimages -list input.pdf first if you want to see what’s inside. This is the standard way to extract images from PDF on the command line.

Install it first with pip install pymupdf. Then use this script:

python
import fitz  # PyMuPDF

doc = fitz.open("file.pdf")
for page_index, page in enumerate(doc):
    for img_index, img in enumerate(page.get_images(full=True)):
        xref = img[0]
        data = doc.extract_image(xref)
        name = f"page{page_index + 1}_img{img_index + 1}.{data['ext']}"
        with open(name, "wb") as f:
            f.write(data["image"])

GitHub has many similar projects. Docling adds layout analysis, which helps when you want figures with their captions. Some AI tools can also detect charts and diagrams. They’re useful for developers. For a few pictures, they’re more than you need.