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AVIF to PDF Converter
Convert an AVIF image into a PDF document. Expect the file to get considerably bigger — around three times in testing. AVIF is the most efficient image format in common use and PDF has never heard of it, so the conversion undoes much of what makes AVIF worth using.
Drag and drop your AVIF images here
Add several at once. Each file is processed and then deleted from our server.
Up to 20 MB per file Batch ready
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Step by step
How to convert AVIF to PDF in 3 steps
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Add your AVIF file
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Nothing to configure
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Download
The size increase is explained below — it is expected, not a fault.
Format comparison
AVIF vs PDF
AVIF (AV1 Image File Format)
Lossy or losslessThe newest widely supported web format, built on the AV1 video codec and designed for the smallest files.
- Usually the smallest file at a given visual quality
- Supported by current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari
- Slow to encode, and unsupported by much older software
PDF (Portable Document Format)
DocumentA fixed-layout document format that looks the same on every device and printer.
- Opens identically everywhere, and prints reliably
- Holds many images as pages of one file
- A document rather than an image, so it is awkward to edit or embed
The newest format meeting one of the oldest
AVIF came out of video compression research — it is a still frame of AV1 — and it is extraordinarily good, routinely half the size of a JPEG at the same visual quality, with real transparency and wide colour support on top.
PDF's image handling was designed in the early 1990s. It understands JPEG, and it understands a handful of lossless schemes. There is no mechanism for adding a new codec to an existing PDF reader, so AVIF cannot go into a PDF as AVIF and never will.
What actually happens to your image
The AVIF is decoded and re-encoded as a high-quality JPEG, and that JPEG is embedded in the document. Two consequences:
- The file grows. Measured on a photograph: a 24 KB AVIF became a 73 KB PDF. Roughly triple, and much of AVIF's advantage is simply gone.
- There is one generation of lossy compression. At the quality used here it is invisible on a photograph, but it is not nothing, and claiming otherwise would be dishonest.
The alternative — storing the decoded pixels losslessly — would make a document many times larger again, to preserve perfectly an image that was already an approximation. For a format whose entire purpose is efficiency, that is the wrong trade.
Transparency does not survive as transparency
AVIF supports a full alpha channel, and a PDF page is a sheet of paper. Transparent areas become white.
Additionally, because the image is routed through JPEG — which has no alpha channel at all — transparency is flattened onto white before the page is even made. If your AVIF is a logo or a graphic that needs a transparent background, a PDF is the wrong container; use AVIF to PNG instead.
Wide colour
AVIF can carry colours outside the standard sRGB range, which is one of its genuine advantages on modern displays. Those are mapped into normal sRGB on the way through, since that is what will display and print predictably. On most images the difference is imperceptible; on a deliberately wide-gamut photograph, saturated colours may look slightly flatter.
Quality
Quality and file size
There is no quality setting. The JPEG step uses a high fixed quality, chosen so the added generation is not visible while keeping the document a sane size.
If size matters more than convenience
There is not much room to improve on this. The size increase is inherent to PDF's lack of AVIF support, not to how the conversion is done. You could convert to JPG first and control the quality yourself, which lets you trade quality for size deliberately rather than accepting our default — that is the only real lever.
The more useful question is whether you need a PDF at all. AVIF exists for the web, where its efficiency is the entire point. Converting one to PDF is usually driven by a form or a system that demands PDF, rather than by anything about the image.
Where AVIF files come from
Unlike HEIC, which arrives from an iPhone by accident, AVIF is nearly always chosen deliberately:
- Saved from a modern website — increasingly common as sites adopt it for speed.
- Exported by a developer or designer optimising a site.
- Produced by a build pipeline that generates AVIF alongside other formats.
That matters because it means you probably have the original somewhere. If the AVIF was generated from a master image, converting that to PDF will give a better and often smaller result than going through AVIF at all.
Print size
Converting does not change the pixel count. AVIFs from websites are often 1200–1600 pixels wide, which is fine on screen and soft across a printed page. For full-page print quality you want around 2480 pixels on A4.
When you actually need this
- A form that only accepts PDF, and AVIF is what you have.
- Sharing with someone whose software will not open AVIF — still most software outside a current browser.
- Putting a web image into a document for a report or a proposal.
- Printing, where PDF behaves predictably and an image file does not.
- Archiving in a format that will certainly still open decades from now.
AVIF support outside the browser is the real problem
Browser support is essentially universal now — Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all handle AVIF. Everything else lags badly: operating system previews, office software, older phones, printers, and a great deal of business software.
This gap is precisely why a conversion tool is needed for a format that is, on the merits, better than what it replaces. It will close eventually, and until it does, converting is often faster than arguing with someone else's software.
Several images into one document
This makes one PDF per image. Images to PDF takes up to fifty files with drag-to-reorder and one page each.
Related
If you need an image rather than a document, AVIF to JPG is the compatible choice for photographs and AVIF to PNG keeps transparency for graphics.
What happens to your file
Browsers cannot write PDF documents, so this runs on our server. Your upload is deleted the moment conversion finishes, the result is deleted as you download it, and anything abandoned is swept automatically.
Privacy
What happens to your file
This tool runs on our server, so it works the same on every phone and computer. Your file is uploaded, and this is exactly what happens to it:
- Stored outside the public web root under a random name, never under your file's name.
- Processed, with the original upload deleted immediately — whether it succeeded or failed.
- The result sits behind a signed link that only you receive, which stops working after 20 minutes, and the file is deleted the moment you download it.
- Anything never collected is deleted automatically within 30 minutes.
- The image itself is never logged or kept. If a conversion fails, we record the formats involved and the error — not the file.
- Camera metadata, including any GPS coordinates recording where a photo was taken, is removed from the result. Only the rotation needed to show the image the right way up is kept.
Questions & answers
AVIF to PDF: frequently asked questions
Why did my file get so much bigger?
Because PDF has no AVIF support and never will — its image handling was designed in the early 1990s and there is no way to add a codec to existing readers. Your image is re-encoded as a high-quality JPEG, and JPEG is far less efficient than AVIF. Measured, a 24 KB AVIF became a 73 KB PDF.
Is anything lost in the conversion?
One generation of lossy compression, from the JPEG step. At the quality used it is invisible on a photograph, but it is not nothing and it would be dishonest to claim the conversion is lossless. Storing the pixels losslessly instead would make the document many times larger again, to perfectly preserve an image that was already an approximation.
Will my transparent background be kept?
No, twice over. A PDF page is paper, so transparency shows white — and because the image goes through JPEG, which has no alpha channel at all, it is flattened onto white before the page is even made. For a logo that needs transparency, convert to PNG instead.
Can I make the PDF smaller?
Not much, because the increase is inherent to PDF rather than to how the conversion works. The one real lever is converting to JPG first and choosing the quality yourself, which lets you trade quality for size deliberately instead of accepting our default.
Should I convert the original instead?
If you have it, yes. AVIF is nearly always generated deliberately from a master image, so that master probably exists. Converting it directly gives a better and often smaller result than routing through AVIF and then JPEG.
Why is AVIF so badly supported outside browsers?
Browsers adopted it quickly — Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all handle it — while operating system previews, office software, printers and business software lag badly. That gap is the entire reason this conversion is needed for a format that is genuinely better than what it replaces.
Keep going
Related image tools
AVIF to JPG Converter
Convert AVIF images to JPG so older software can open them. Free, no sign-up, and it works the same on every phone and computer.
AVIF to PNG Converter
Convert AVIF to lossless PNG with transparency preserved. Best before editing, at the cost of a much larger file.
JPG to PDF Converter
Turn JPG photos into PDF documents. The JPEG is embedded exactly as it is, so nothing is re-compressed and no quality is lost.
Images to PDF
Combine several images into one PDF, one page each. Drag to reorder, choose A4 or fit-to-image. Nothing is re-encoded.