How do I convert a ZIP file of images into one PDF?

Scanned pages from a shared scanner, a folder of receipts, photos of every page of a handwritten document, a download from cloud storage: sets of images often arrive as a single .zip file. Unpacking it, selecting eighty files and dragging them into the right order is the tedious part. Converting the ZIP directly skips it.

Step by step

1. Open ZIP to PDF and choose the .zip file.
2. Under Order, choose By file name (the default) or By date in the archive.
3. Under What you get back, keep One merged PDF. The other choice, A PDF for each file, returns a new ZIP with one PDF per image.
4. Press Convert archive.
5. The result tells you how many files were converted and how many pages the PDF has. Anything that could not be used is listed, with the reason.
6. Press Download. The PDF is named after the ZIP.

The archive is unpacked and converted on our server, and deleted as soon as the result is built.

Getting the order right

The order is decided by file names, so file names are worth a moment before zipping.

By file name sorts the way people count. page2 comes before page10, and scan-9 before scan-10. You do not need to pad numbers with zeros.

The whole path counts. If the images are in folders inside the ZIP, the folder name is part of the sort: everything in "Chapter 1" comes before everything in "Chapter 2", then by file name within each.

Mixed name patterns sort by their start. A folder holding IMG_0412.jpg and Screenshot 2026-05-01.png puts every IMG file before every Screenshot file, regardless of when they were taken. In that case, try By date in the archive, which uses each file's modified date, oldest first.

There is no way to drag pages into a different order inside ZIP to PDF. If neither order is right, rename the files and zip again, or use Image to PDF (below).

Which image formats to use

JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and TIFF all convert. Each is prepared the same way Image to PDF prepares an upload, then placed on its own page.

Anything else is listed as skipped rather than converted. Photos from an iPhone are often saved as HEIC, which ZIP to PDF does not accept at all. Export or share them as JPG first. For future photos, choosing Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats makes an iPhone save JPG instead.

What size each page becomes

Each image becomes one page exactly the size of the image, with no margin. One pixel becomes one point on the page.

For scans that is usually what you want: every page keeps its own proportions and nothing is letterboxed. For phone photos it produces very large pages: a 4000 × 3000 photo becomes a page more than a metre wide. It looks normal on screen, where viewers zoom to fit, and printers scale it down. But if you need uniform A4 pages, run the result through Resize PDF.

Photos taken sideways

Phones often store a photo sideways and add a note saying which way up to show it. ZIP to PDF reads that note and turns each photo upright before placing it, just as Image to PDF does. A page that was scanned upside down carries no such note; turn it with Rotate PDF.

Limits and housekeeping

• Up to 100 files in one ZIP, and 200 pages in the result.
• Folders are flattened. Images at any depth are included; the folders only affect the order.
• System clutter is ignored. The __MACOSX folder and ._ files a Mac adds, .DS_Store and Thumbs.db are removed before anything is counted.
• Password-protected ZIPs cannot be opened. Unzip it with the password on your own device, then zip the images again without one.
• A ZIP inside the ZIP is not opened. It is listed as skipped.

ZIP to PDF or Image to PDF?

After converting

A PDF built from photos is large, because every page is a full-resolution photograph. Compress PDF will usually reduce it a great deal before you email it. If the images were scanned pages of text and you need to search them, run OCR PDF on the result.