PDF to SVG Converter

Much of the vector artwork in circulation lives inside PDFs: a logo in a brand guideline, a chart in an annual report, a floor plan from an architect, an infographic from a publisher, a diagram exported from a spreadsheet. Copying it out as a screenshot turns it into pixels that blur when enlarged. Converting the page to SVG keeps it as vector paths that a design tool can edit and a browser can render at any size.

SVG is a W3C standard, with the SVG 1.1 Second Edition Recommendation dating from 2011, and it is plain text. That makes it easy to style with CSS, animate, compress on a web server and keep under version control, which is why front-end developers often ask for icons and illustrations in SVG.

Plotters, vinyl cutters and laser engravers are another audience. Their software often imports SVG directly and follows its paths with the blade or the beam, so a logo or a pattern supplied as a PDF needs to become SVG before it can be cut. In that case outlined text and simple, closed shapes give the cleanest result.

PDFs made by design, office or charting software contain real vector content, and that content comes through cleanly: paths, fills, strokes, gradients and text. Embedded photos remain photos inside the SVG, placed as images. Transparency and layering are kept as far as SVG can express them.

A quick way to tell what you have: open the PDF and try to select a word or zoom far into a line. If the text highlights and the line stays crisp at high zoom, the page is vector and will convert into editable shapes. If nothing selects and edges turn into pixels as you zoom, the page is an image, and the warning below applies.

By default, text in the PDF stays text in the SVG, so you can still select it, search it and fix a typo in a design tool. The catch is fonts: the SVG names the fonts the PDF used, and a computer without them shows a substitute. Turning on Convert text to outlines draws every letter as a shape, which looks the same everywhere but cannot be edited as text anymore. Cutting machines and sign makers usually want outlines.

Each page becomes its own SVG, named in page order. Choose First page only or Selected pages to skip the rest of a long document, and Separate files under Download as if you do not want a ZIP. Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first.

For the web, run the finished SVG through an optimizer of your choice before publishing. Files converted from PDF carry precise coordinates and grouping that design tools like, but a web page can do with fewer decimals and fewer groups.

Uploads are deleted once the SVG files are ready, and the results 30 minutes later. For raster formats such as PNG, JPG or TIFF, or for EPS as another vector option, use the main PDF to Image tool.