NovaThis guide explains each setting in NovaPDFTool's Images to PDF converter, shows how big the PDF gets with real phone photos, and points out the one button that can double the file size without you noticing.
When a PDF beats sending photos
A folder of separate JPGs is awkward to send, print or archive. The recipient has to open each one, and there's no guaranteed order once they leave your phone. One PDF fixes both: a single file with the pages in a fixed order.
It's the usual way to turn photos of a signed form, receipts for an expense claim, or handwritten notes into something that reads like one document instead of a photo album.
How to convert images to PDF, step by step
- Open the converter. Go to novapdftool.com/images-to-pdf on a computer or phone.
- Add your images. Drop JPG or PNG files onto the box, or click Browse files. On a phone you can pick photos straight from your gallery. Each image becomes one page.
- Put them in order. Drag a thumbnail to move it, or use its up and down arrows. Remove any photo you added by mistake.
- Choose the page size. Fit to image makes each page the size of its photo. Choose A4 or LETTER for anything that will be printed or uploaded to a form, then pick a margin.
- Check the orientation. Auto gives each page the shape of its photo. Choose Portrait or Landscape to force every page one way.
- Create the PDF. Leave Output on One PDF and click Create PDF. The file downloads as images.pdf. Choose One PDF per image instead to get a zip with a separate PDF for each photo.
- Check the file. Open the PDF and look at every page, including its file size, before you send it.
What we measured
How we tested: we ran the live NovaPDFTool code in Chrome 155 on a Windows laptop (Intel Core i5-12450H, 16 GB RAM) on 17 October 2026, using sample files we built for testing. Times are the middle of three runs. A phone or an older computer will take longer, so treat the times as a comparison between settings, not a promise. The images were four 12-megapixel phone-style photos of a document (3024 × 4032 pixels, JPG, about 4.36 MB each), a 1170 × 2532 phone screenshot saved as PNG, and one of the photos saved as WebP.
| Images and setting | Images in | PDF out | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 photos, Fit to image | 17.44 MB | 17.45 MB | 0.8 s |
| 4 photos, A4, small margin | 17.44 MB | 17.45 MB | 0.8 s |
| 4 photos, LETTER, big margin | 17.44 MB | 17.45 MB | 0.7 s |
| 4 photos, A4, one rotated once | 17.44 MB | 36.93 MB | 6.4 s |
| 4 photos, One PDF per image (zip) | 17.44 MB | 17.45 MB | 0.9 s |
| 1 screenshot (PNG), Fit to image | 182.1 KB | 165.3 KB | 0.4 s |
| 1 photo saved as WebP | 2.82 MB | 19.49 MB | 7.2 s |
Why the PDF is the size of your photos
JPG files go into the PDF byte for byte, without being decoded and saved again. That's why four photos totalling 17.44 MB made a 17.45 MB PDF, and why quality doesn't drop at all. PNG images are stored losslessly too. Our screenshot even came out slightly smaller, because the PDF repacks PNG data with its own compression.
Page size doesn't change the file size either. A4, LETTER and Fit to image all produced the same 17.45 MB, because the full photo is kept and simply drawn smaller on a standard page.
The flip side: phone photos make big PDFs. Four photos already pass 10 MB, so if you're emailing or uploading the result, plan to compress it. See the last section below.
The rotate button can double the file
A JPG can only be copied into the PDF unchanged if it isn't altered. When you rotate a photo in the tool, it is redrawn turned and saved as a lossless PNG instead, and a PNG of a detailed photo is much bigger than the JPG it came from. In our test, rotating one photo turned its 4.36 MB into a 23.84 MB page, the whole PDF grew from 17.45 MB to 36.93 MB, and creating it took 6.4 seconds instead of 0.8.
Image quality doesn't suffer, so if the PDF will stay on your computer, rotate freely. If you need to send it, compress the finished PDF afterward. Images in other formats your browser can open, such as WebP, go through the same PNG conversion: our 2.82 MB WebP photo became a 19.49 MB PDF.
Page size, margins and orientation
- Fit to image makes each page exactly the size of its photo, with no margin. It looks best on screen, but the page is large on paper: a 3024 × 4032 photo became a page 42 by 56 inches, so printers and forms will scale it down.
- A4 or LETTER puts each image on a standard sheet, scaled to fit and centred. Nothing is cropped off, so a photo with a different shape from the paper leaves some white space at two edges.
- Margin appears only with A4 or LETTER. Small leaves 24 points (about 8.5 mm) on each side and Big leaves 56 points (about 20 mm). None runs the image to the edge of the sheet.
- Orientation on Auto gives each page the shape of its photo, so a landscape photo gets a landscape page. In our rotated test, the turned photo got an A4 landscape page automatically while the others stayed portrait. Portrait or Landscape forces every page the same way.
What actually affects quality
The converter can't add detail a photo doesn't have, and it doesn't straighten, sharpen or brighten anything. Three habits make far more difference than any setting:
- Even light. Avoid one corner in shadow and another washed out by a lamp. Daylight from a window works well.
- Straight on. Hold the phone flat above the page, not at an angle, so lines of text stay straight.
- In focus. Tap the document on your screen to focus before you take the photo.
If your photos show a lot of desk around the page, Scan to PDF lets you crop each photo before it becomes a page.
If the PDF is too big to send
We ran our 17.45 MB four-photo PDF through Compress PDF on the Recommended setting and got 666.9 KB in 1.2 seconds. The 36.93 MB version with a rotated photo came down to 426.0 KB. Compression lowers the resolution, so zoom in on the result before you send it. How to choose a level is covered in our guide to compressing a PDF without losing quality. Keep the uncompressed PDF as your full-quality copy.
To combine your new PDF with other documents, use Merge PDF.