About PDF to WebP
WebP is an image format designed for the web. With lossy compression it typically stores a page image in fewer bytes than a JPG of comparable visual quality, which means faster-loading pages and less mobile data for your visitors. Every current major browser can display it.
The converter renders each selected page of your PDF with pdf.js, Mozilla’s open-source PDF renderer, and then asks the browser to encode the result as WebP. You choose the resolution (72, 150 or 300 DPI) and the quality: High (92) is the default, and Medium (80) trims the file further at the cost of slightly softer detail. Output files are named like catalog-p1.webp, and several pages are delivered as one ZIP.
Browser support: Safari can’t create WebP
Encoding WebP is a browser feature, and Safari doesn’t provide it, so in Safari the tool shows an error message. Use Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer, or switch to PDF to JPG, which works in every supported browser. On iPhone and iPad, other browsers generally run on Apple’s WebKit engine as well, so expect the same limit there. Opening and viewing WebP files in Safari is fine; only creating them is missing.
How to use PDF to WebP
- Add your PDFOpen this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, then drop the PDF on the tool or browse for it. A thumbnail shows up for each page in the document.
- Set pages, DPI and qualityLeave every page selected or narrow it down by clicking thumbnails or typing something like 4-6, 9. For web use, 150 DPI at High quality is a sensible starting point.
- Save the WebP imagesConvert, then save the output. A lone page arrives as one .webp file, and multiple pages come as a single ZIP archive you can unpack into your site’s image folder.
When people use it
Preview pages on a download page
If you offer a PDF manual, menu or spec sheet, a WebP of the first page or two lets visitors see what they are getting before they download. 72 DPI is enough for a thumbnail, 150 DPI for a readable preview.
Illustrate a blog post or docs site
Quoting a figure or a form from a PDF in an article? A WebP keeps the total page weight down, which adds up when a post contains several page images.
Lighter images inside an app or intranet
Teams that show report pages in a dashboard, a knowledge base or a mobile app can store WebP versions to save bandwidth and storage compared with keeping PNG copies.
Choosing a resolution for web pages
Online, what counts is how wide the image will be displayed. A US Letter page rendered at 72 DPI is 612 pixels wide; at 150 DPI it is 1275 pixels wide; at 300 DPI, 2550.
- 72 DPI works for thumbnails, cards and small previews where readers only need to recognize the page.
- 150 DPI, the default, gives a Letter page enough pixels to look sharp on a high-density phone or laptop screen when shown about 640 CSS pixels wide, a common width for an article column.
- 300 DPI is rarely needed on the web. Reserve it for pages where visitors must zoom into fine print, such as a dense chart, because it carries four times the pixels of 150 DPI.
File size, quality and transparency
WebP output here is lossy, so it behaves much like JPG: smaller files, with very slight softening around sharp edges at High quality and a little more at Medium. Text-heavy pages at 150 DPI and High quality remain clearly readable. Pages with photographs benefit most from WebP, while pages of plain text are already light in any format.
Each page is rendered over white, so transparent regions of the PDF turn white in the image. Document metadata such as the title and author isn’t carried over. Text inside the image can’t be selected or copied by visitors, so put important words in the surrounding HTML or the image’s alt text as well.
An exceptionally large page, like a wall chart, is reduced automatically to stay under the browser’s canvas ceiling of about 8,000 pixels on each side.
Serving WebP with a fallback
Every browser in current use can display WebP. If your audience includes very old browsers or email programs, offer a JPG alternative through the HTML picture element. MDN’s image file type guide compares WebP with JPG, PNG and AVIF in more depth.
When WebP is the wrong choice
- Attachments and upload forms. Some email programs, office software and official portals still expect JPG or PNG. Send JPG to those.
- Print. Printers and layout software are happier with lossless files; render at 300 DPI with PDF to PNG for that.
- A smaller PDF. To keep the document but make it lighter, Compress PDF preserves its searchable text.
- Publishing a few pages as a PDF. If visitors should download a chapter rather than view images, cut it out with Split PDF.
- Encrypted files. A PDF that asks for a password has to go through Unlock PDF first, and you need to know that password.
Received WebP images that you need in a more widely accepted format? WebP to JPG converts them.
Processing stays local
No server sees your document: the PDF is opened, drawn and encoded as WebP by your own browser, then saved to your device. To see for yourself that no file data leaves the tab, follow the verification steps.