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PPDF123

Render Page 1 of a PDF as PNG

Extract Image Scans renders only the first page of a PDF to a 150 dpi PNG with Ghostscript. It does not detect or deskew scanned photos, and later pages are not included.

Drag and drop files here, or click to choose

Accepts PDF · up to 500.0 MB per file · up to 20 files at once

You can also paste a file with Ctrl/Cmd+V, or from the clipboard menu.

Extract Image Scans renders only page 1 with Ghostscript `png16m` at 150 dpi (`-dFirstPage=1 -dLastPage=1`) and returns that PNG. Angle, tolerance, min area, contour, and border fields are ignored. There is no OpenCV deskew and no multi-page split.

The download is `{base}.png`. Later pages are not in the file. This is not OCR.

Password-protected files are unlocked for you on this page once you enter the password; API callers run Unlock first if Ghostscript cannot open them.

For every page as images, use PDF to Images. For embedded XObjects, Extract Images.

Features

  • Ghostscript first-page PNG at 150 dpi
  • All geometry fields unused
  • Not OCR, not multi-page, not deskew
  • Anonymous API at /api/v1/misc/extract-image-scans

When to use this tool

  • Grab a 150 dpi preview of page 1
  • Feed a pipeline that expects a single scan PNG
  • Avoid the unused contour fields

How do I turn the first page of a PDF into a PNG?

  1. Upload a PDF whose first page is the scan you want.
  2. Ignore the OpenCV-looking fields; they are not applied.
  3. Click Process and download the PNG.
  4. If you needed page 2, this tool will not give it.

Limits and edge cases

  • Page 1 only
  • Fixed 150 dpi png16m
  • Deskew controls are dead
  • Upload limit on this website: 500 MB per file, sent in chunks above about 95 MB. A single direct API request body is capped at 100 MB.

Examples

  • A 10-page scan still yields one PNG of page 1
  • Changing minArea does not crop the PNG

Privacy for this tool

Files are uploaded over HTTPS, processed in memory or a short-lived temporary directory on our servers, and deleted when your result is ready. We do not keep copies for later browsing, training, or advertising profiles. See the Privacy Policy for retention details and AdSense cookie disclosures.

Frequently asked questions

Why is only page 1 in the PNG?
gs is invoked with FirstPage=1 and LastPage=1. That is the whole op.
Does angleThreshold straighten the scan?
No. The parameter is unused.
Is this the same as PDF to Images?
No. PDF to Images can render many pages. This always rasters page 1 at 150 dpi PNG.
Will I get selectable text?
No. The output is a bitmap. OCR is a different tool and returns Markdown.

Last updated:

Call this from code

Every tool on this site is a plain REST endpoint - no account or API key needed for anonymous use. Built for AI agents and developers as much as for browsers.

curl -X POST "https://pdf123.xyz/api/v1/misc/extract-image-scans" \
  -F "[email protected]" \
  -o output.pdf

Also available as an MCP tool for agent clients that speak Model Context Protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0 over POST /mcp). Full API reference

Use it from an AI agent

Skill

Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other AI agents can run Extract Image Scans for you with this skill: /skills/pdf123-extract-image-scans.md

All agent skills

Files are used only for this processing job and deleted automatically afterward.