Unlock the Magic: Open PDFs in Windows Paint

I. Formats supported by Windows drawing software

Microsoft Paint is an image painting program pre-installed in Windows operating systems. It can open and view WMF and EMF files, as well as save images in BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG (without alpha channel), and TIFF formats. Older versions of Paint do not support PNG files, only GIF, JPEG, and TIFF with image filtering.

From the above introduction, Windows drawing software does not support opening PDF files. If you really want to open PDF files with drawing software and perform other editing operations on them, you can consider converting PDF pages into pictures, so that you can use Paint software opens it. The following will introduce 2 methods of PDF to image conversion, let’s look down together.

II. Convert PDF to image with Renee PDF Aide

1. What is Renee PDF Aide

Renee PDF Aide is a multifunctional tool software that integrates PDF file editing and format conversion. The interface is simple and versatile, equipped with practical PDF editing functions such as repairing damaged files, optimizing loading time of large files, splitting or merging PDF files, adjusting display angle, encrypting/decrypting files, adding watermarks, converting images to PDF, etc. It also has PDF format conversion function, converting PDF files into common formats like Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Image/HTML/TXT, supporting quick conversion of entire document or specified pages at a speed of up to 80 pages per minute.

Additionally, Renee PDF Aide integrates advanced OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology and provides OCR language packages for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Selecting the appropriate recognition language in OCR mode can significantly enhance character recognition accuracy when converting scanned documents or pictures.

2. How to use Renee PDF Aide to convert PDF to image?

Renee PDF Aide can convert PDF to image files, the interface is simple and the operation is very simple.

Step 1: Download and install Renee PDF Aide, then run the software. Select the (Convert PDF) option.

Step 2: In the function menu bar, select (Image) and click (Add File) to import the PDF file for conversion. Drag and drop the PDF file directly into the software for easy batch processing.

Step 3: Import the file, click (Options), choose extract pictures mode, select (output each page of PDF file to an image), set image format (BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF), click (Confirm) > (Convert) to convert PDF page to image.

III. Use the screenshot tool to capture PDF pages and save them as pictures

Windows system has a built-in screenshot tool that can capture full screen or part of the screen. If you need to convert a few PDF pages into images for editing in Windows drawing software, follow the steps below to use the screenshot tool.

Step 1: Search for “screenshot” in the search box at the bottom left, and open the snipping tool.

Step 2: Select screenshot mode, click (New) button to capture PDF file page, choose delay of 1 to 5 seconds in (Delay) drop-down box.

Step 3: After taking the screenshot, check if it meets the requirements in the tool interface. To save the picture, click (File) > (Save As), and choose a format supported by Windows Paint (PNG, GIF, JPEG). If not saving, create a new screenshot and close the tool when done.

IV. Open the converted picture in Windows Paint software

Search for “Paint” in the search bar, open the software, click (File) > (Open) in the upper left corner, select the converted picture, switch to the (home page) bar, and use the editing tools above for further edits on the picture.