How can I create a multipage PDF from JPG's in Preview?

This would create a multi-page PDF file where each page is an image.

I've tried doing the same thing in Lion, but it doesn't produce the same results. Although in step 5 it appears as though a multipage document is created, after you save it, the file size becomes much bigger than the original one page PDF, but after opening it, all you can see is a single page.

Is there any way to do this in Lion?

3 2 2 bronze badges asked Oct 22, 2011 at 5:54 24.1k 84 84 gold badges 190 190 silver badges 291 291 bronze badges

7 Answers 7

This works for me on Mountain Lion:

Save as PDF

  1. Open all the JPG's in Preview so that the files are selectable within the one window, i.e. thumbnails of the JPG's are viewable in the selection pane located the window's left side.
  2. Click in the selection pane and select all the thumbnails with Cmd-A.
  3. Select File > Print. from the menu bar.
  4. Select PDF > (from the drop down) Save as PDF. from within the Print Dialog.
  5. Take it from there.

9,120 15 15 gold badges 73 73 silver badges 119 119 bronze badges answered Aug 27, 2012 at 5:29 Thad Robertson Thad Robertson 541 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 2 2 bronze badges

Oops, just tried it again. The problem was that I was dropping the files below the page rather than on the page thumbnail.

answered Oct 22, 2011 at 5:57 24.1k 84 84 gold badges 190 190 silver badges 291 291 bronze badges Weird that Apple changed it to a seemingly less intuitive way, but thanks for letting us know. Commented Oct 22, 2011 at 7:40

I did this, but the first JPG fills the whole page while the rest of the pages have a white border around the original image.

Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 3:27

I think I found an easier way with Lion:

  1. Select all images and right click, choose Open with Preview.
  2. Select all images inside Preview (cmd+a) and right click, Export as…
  3. Choose a folder where all the new .pdf files will be saved.
  4. Open one of the .pdf files in Preview, and drag n'drop the all the other files over the Thumbnail of the current file in Preview.
103k 42 42 gold badges 219 219 silver badges 270 270 bronze badges answered Nov 25, 2012 at 13:07 61 1 1 silver badge 1 1 bronze badge this does not make a multi-page PDF Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 18:18

We are using Snow Leopard and having the same results as Daniel Serodio, i.e. the first page looks good (no border) while all the following pages have an annoying white border around the image.

The only workaround we found adds another step to the process.

  1. Open all jpegs in Preview and display the sidebar. The jpegs will display in one window but still be separate files, as discussed above.
  2. Select all the thumbnails in the sidebar (Command-A.)
  3. Right-click in the sidebar area and choose Save a Copy to Folder. In the following dialog, choose PDF for the format, and choose a place to save the PDFs. Preview saves the jpegs as individual PDFs to your selected folder.
  4. Close out of the jpegs and open the LAST of the PDFs you just made* and display the sidebar. Now follow steps as above: select all of the rest of the PDFs in the Finder, and drag them ONTO the page thumbnail icon in the sidebar of Preview to get a multi-page PDF.
  5. Save!

*For some reason Preview is kicking this "seed" PDF to the end when I add the additional PDF files, so that's why I'm saying start with your last page instead of the first page, so you don't have to re-order them again.