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How to Convert Word Documents Into Images (jpg, png, gif, tiff)

A professional engineer and writer helping people find creative ways to solve everyday problems.

Need to convert your Word Document (or part of it) into an image? Microsoft Word itself has a function that will allow you to do so. Versions 2007 and better allow you to convert documents into images using "paste special," and you will have the option to convert into jpeg, jpg, png, and other formats of your choice.

This method is very simple and yields reasonable quality with a high resolution, which is much better than other doc-to-image converters available online. What's more, you have the option of converting any document into any type of graphic: jpg, tiff, png, or gif file format.

So stop wasting any of your time and money searching for scam converters when you can create an image without one using the following easy steps:

  1. Select what you'd like to save as an image.
  2. Copy your selection.
  3. Open a new document.
  4. Paste special.
  5. Select "Picture."
  6. Right-click the resulting image and select "Save as Picture."
  7. Select your desired format from the dropdown menu.

The instructions below will walk you through each step.

1: Select What You'd Like to Save as an Image

Select all (shown here on Word 2016 for Mac)

Select all (shown here on Word 2016 for Mac)

If you would like to turn your entire document into an image, select all. You can do this by:

  • Pressing Ctrl+A on a PC.
  • Pressing command+A on a Mac.
  • Pressing Shift+Ctrl+End to select from the cursor position till the end of the document.
  • Or selecting "Edit">"Select All" from the menu.

If you would only like to turn parts of your document into an image, select those objects with your cursor.

Do note that contents selected on a single page only will be converted to an image. So to convert multiple pages, you will have to select each of their contents and follow the steps separately.

2: Copy Your Selection

Copy your selection

Copy your selection

Copy your selection. You can do this by:

  • Typing Ctrl+C on a PC.
  • Typing command+C on a Mac.
  • Right-clicking the selection and selecting "copy."
  • Or clicking on the copy icon in the standard toolbar.

3: Open New Document

Open a new blank Word document. (This is where your selection will be pasted as an image.)

4: Paste Special

Accessing paste special from the home ribbon (shown here on Word 2010 for PC)

Accessing paste special from the home ribbon (shown here on Word 2010 for PC)

Scroll to Continue
Accessing past special from the edit menu (shown here on Word 2016 for Mac)

Accessing past special from the edit menu (shown here on Word 2016 for Mac)

In the Home tab, go to paste options by clicking on the downward arrow at the bottom of the button, then click on "paste special" as shown in the picture above. Alternately, you can select "edit">"paste special."

5: Select "Picture"

You will want to paste what's saved in your clipboard as a picture.

You will want to paste what's saved in your clipboard as a picture.

In the paste-special window, select "Picture (Enhanced Metafile)," as shown in the picture above, and click "OK."

An image of what you copied will be pasted in the document.

6: Right-Click and Select "Save as Picture"

how-to-convert-word-document-into-image-jpeg-png-gif-tiff

Right-click on your new image and select "Save as Picture." To right-click on a Mac, hold the control key as you click.

7: Select Your Desired Format

Select what type of file you would like your picture to be. Here is what the menu will look like on a PC.

Select what type of file you would like your picture to be. Here is what the menu will look like on a PC.

Here is what the menu will look like on a Mac.

Here is what the menu will look like on a Mac.

Select your desired format from the dropdown menu and save it. You are done!

I recommend saving it as png if you want to upload it somewhere on the Internet. It will give you the best quality in a small-sized file.

If you Get a Black Background in the End?

If you get a black background in the final converted image after executing up till the last step, try saving the image again as a png or tiff. Otherwise, try opening the converted image file through MS Paint.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

Questions & Answers

Question: Is there a way to convert Word documents into images if my version of Word doesn't offer the "Paste Special" option (only Paste)?

Answer: The "Paste Special" option is available in all versions of MS Word above 2007; I have 2016 right now and the option is available. In case it is not available, you will not be able to follow the process.

Question: There is no "save as picture" option coming when it is right-clicked?

Answer: I have recently checked in the latest version: Word 2019 and the Save as Picture option is available. Please email me with screenshots if you are facing any difficulty in following the steps.

Question: I saved with png on my pc and later copied it to my phone but it is showing black. What should I do?

Answer: You should try to save it as a jpg and then transfer to your phone.

Question: My source Word 2010 page had a border created by Word. Is there any way to select that, so it converts?

Answer: Yes, you can convert to images with borders by following the same method but with a slight addition.

You need to flex page margins to the very edges of the page, such that the page border now falls within the margins instead of outside the margins.

Next place a dot at the 'topmost corner' of the page and the 'bottom most corner' of the page.

Press Ctrl + A to select all of the page and then follow the process in the article to convert to image, if you get a black background, save as PNG and open the image file in MS Paint.

Question: How do I convert the Word document into an image if my document has multiple pages? I tried to follow the steps but only the first page is being pasted.

Answer: The process works for a single page only, you may however try to increase page size.

Question: I got the paste special, but no save as picture when I right-click. Am I doing something wrong?

Answer: I have recently checked in the latest version: Word 2019 and the Save as Picture option is available. Please email me with screenshots if you are facing any difficulty in following the steps.

Question: How do I repair a jpg that saved entirely dark?

Answer: Try saving as a PNG.

Question: Where can I find save as picture option when I right-click at step 6?

Answer: I have recently checked in the latest version: Word 2019 and the Save as Picture option is available. Please email me with screenshots if you are facing any difficulty in following the steps.

Question: I had a watermark on the document that I was trying to save, however after following the steps the watermark was not visible. How can this be fixed when converting my Word document into an image?

Answer: In order to have the watermark in the image after the 'Paste Special' step, you will have to select the whole of the page or the document using ctrl+A. The watermark should appear in the pasted image thereafter.

© 2012 StormsHalted

Comments

Anonymous on September 16, 2020:

Thanks, that was incredibly helpful!

Dale Anderson from The High Seas on September 15, 2020:

Hey thanks for the useful tip. I can definitely see me using this in the future.

margaux on August 09, 2020:

super helpfuuul!! Thank youuu very much ❤️

Fox L on July 21, 2020:

Thank you very much!!

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on July 13, 2020:

Stephanie,

I have tried this before with tables, it doesn't work that well.

Stephanie on July 13, 2020:

I have a table on my word document over top of an image. Trying to save the whole thing as an image, but when I copy/paste special it completely distorts my table and doesn't bring over the background image. What am I doing wrong?

Wasantha Wijenayake on June 24, 2020:

This is great stuff. Thanks...!

Moses Mulholland on June 23, 2020:

Thanks mehn for helping out, I like your humanity!

R Singh on April 24, 2020:

No save as option pops - up by right clicking

Timi on April 20, 2020:

Thanks a ton, man. This was a lifesaver.

Kala on March 28, 2020:

Thank you. I got it. tested and accomplished.

Tamsin Grainger on March 26, 2020:

Hi, My image has text overwritten on it. When I saved it, the text disappeared.

AMY on March 21, 2020:

When I right click it it doesnt say Save as Picture

Thin Thin Soe on February 12, 2020:

Thanks a lot, it really helps me. I am facing how to make my font visible to others. Now, it's okay.

JD on January 12, 2020:

the word does not offer option to save as picture

Tonio on December 30, 2019:

My "Paste Special" has only HTML Format and Unformatted Unicode Text/ There is no option for "Image". What can I do?

Manoj kumar pareek on December 19, 2019:

Sir, "save as picture" option is not coming in window 2010. Please help.

Nnaaluba Wisdom Egerton on December 09, 2019:

Thank you you so much for this tutorial! I try it and it was wonderful.

Adah sylvester on November 13, 2019:

I right clicked on the document to save it as picture but i was only change picture i saw.

My microsoft word version is 2007.

Elaine Ore on October 16, 2019:

Thank you for this tutorial! I made it. ❤

Dimiter on October 04, 2019:

Hi,

Well, ctrl+A doesn't work on headers. At least not in MS Word 2013 which I use.

Also I notice that in Word 2007 there is no 'save image as' nevertheless that 'paste special' is available. So your method doesn't work on MS Word 2007 but requires later versions.

Another problem is that the picture I save as png contains clean text (nice resolution indeed) without any background. So in Paint 3D I insert a white canvas in order to get white background of the text, saved as picture.

This is because I need the picture to be added to a video, edited by Avid Media Composer.

So finally I save the text as png, then save the header as picture as well. Then in Paint 3D I insert a visible white canvas of the text and then insert the header as another png, resize and put in right position.

Then I save the project in Paint 3 D, and here starts the fun - when I save as png the result, it is damaged by Paint 3D, maybe this is a bug. So i copy the whole thing (ctrl+A and copy) then paste in Paint (not 3D) and save it as png in Paint.

That's it.

P.S. I write here because I didn't have a chance to answer to the email you have sent to me.

Addy on September 09, 2019:

When trying to save doc, my drop down do not have "Portable Network Graphics"

Pleas can you advise on this

divinedar0956@yahoo.com on August 20, 2019:

When I paste as picture it lose formatting. Why is that?

Salman on July 17, 2019:

At first Thanks for ur excellent explanatio. Bt I have no 'Save as' option.So what can I do now???

Uncle Paul on July 02, 2019:

Storms you really are a star. I dimly remember OCR back in yesteryear but it has improved markedly I used TurboFuture and it worked like a treat. Thank you once again

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on June 30, 2019:

Have you tried to this with some of the OCR tools available online?

Uncle Paul on June 29, 2019:

Beautifully explained - thank you. One further query is how do I go the other way to convert a JPEG image into an MS Word document? I have Win 10 and MS Word 2016 also Photoshop CS 6.

paul on June 06, 2019:

hi, how can I convert a whole page including boardings into a picture format

Nuwan on June 01, 2019:

Excellent and very helpful. thank you...

Sophia on April 01, 2019:

I want to take the time to thank you because I think you're smart as this is so clear and has helped just now without stress!

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on March 22, 2019:

Their will be a difference in quality of the image.

MELISSA P. MACAGBA on March 21, 2019:

Why not just screenshot your document. Minimize it so it'll fit then have it screenshot. After, go to screenshot file. open the photo. and then crop the sides. there goes your photo file.

OM on March 08, 2019:

Vow that was great. Thanks a ton

:) on February 18, 2019:

For those of you who, like me, do not have the option to "save as picture," select "copy" when you right click instead and open an image editing program (such as gimp), then paste it in!

Dattatri on January 13, 2019:

Really great solution! Very useful...

Amy Dawson on January 10, 2019:

This worked perfectly! Thank you!!

Aprile on December 31, 2018:

Thanks so much! I have MS 10 version & from my Word doc page I went to "File" then "Save As" then "Picture" then "Save as Type:" (Drop-Down box) then I Changed "Word" to "PDF" choice. It worked! Much success to everyone in 2019!

Paul MEIER on December 26, 2018:

Whys "SELECT PICTURE" not available on Word 365?

Geri on December 03, 2018:

This was awesome. I tried all afternoon how to figure out how to do this and finally I googled it your page came up first. It took me about 30 seconds to do. Thank you so much for your info.

JG294 on November 30, 2018:

Hi.

The procedure suggested for converting Word documents into images is clear and straightforward. However, when I reached at Step 6, I faced the same problem described also by some others. When I right clicked on the image pasted on the new document, no 'Save As Picture' option was available to select. I wonder is it because of the version of MS Word I still prefer to use, Word 2003. Since I need the image as a 'jpg' file instead of merely its copy, any suggestions to solve this problem?

Christine Tomlin on November 24, 2018:

I was able to follow your instructions up to the point of right clicking. There was no option for me to Save As. Btw; this image was selected for my business card. So what I did: I first needed to resize to business size. Clicked on image and selected Copy. I then opened up my Microsoft Office Picture Manager and was able to right click and Paste it there. This automatically Copied it into my file under MyPictures.

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on November 22, 2018:

Hi dio,

I recently did another conversion test on Word 2016, considering your comments.

Conclusively, anything added as background will not convert to an image, however if you add the same image, shape, or a collage of multiple shapes and images as a watermark, it will be translated into the image.

dio on November 20, 2018:

is there a way convert the WHOLE page into image? because these doesn't copy the background color and shapes I put on the document.

Steve on November 02, 2018:

Finally! A solution! After searching the web, this was the only one that worked!! Thanks much!

Mirleni on October 29, 2018:

Thank you so much. Worked perfectly and not something that's readily apparent!

Chuck1259 on October 18, 2018:

Not what I wanted. Libre Office Does it with a click of a button. Open Office does this with an export. Word is the least friendly of the word processor programs.

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on October 11, 2018:

Try a converting to PNG instead.

Deri on October 11, 2018:

Tried it and some of the words and numbers did not render very well (word pic to JPG)

Ritaparna Roy on October 01, 2018:

Hi,

In the new word document,after right clicking the object the "save as picture" option is not coming from the drop down menu

BeenThere216 on September 24, 2018:

On Word 2007, there's no File or Edit but there is a Ribbon. Anyway, everything went smoothly to the point when I did Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C. My original image had text on it that I managed to insert with WordArt but when pasting that into another Word, the text was gone. Argh. And was unable to save as image in Word 2007 anyway.

What eventually worked is pasting everything into Paint. Went in fine along with the text but turned out small. However since this image happened to be nearly perfect, I resized it (enlarged) and saved as PNG.

The entire process is a pain but I love the results.

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on September 24, 2018:

Their might be a very clever work around to this:

Increase the paper size from A4 to A3 or any other bigger then A4. Then also scale up your clipboard utilizing the new space available.

You will get an image with increased resolution automatically.

PJS INNOVATIVE on September 23, 2018:

HI

What do I do if the image is too small and I need it bigger it is showing up as 1400 x 560 and I need 3000 x3000

I am at the limits of landscape orientation

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on September 19, 2018:

Yes, It will work for a single page only, for multiple pages you will have to do it once foe every page.

cei on September 19, 2018:

is it single page only?

F. Lewis on September 10, 2018:

Use printscreen Button on Keyboard to Copy Contents of Screen to Clipboard. Then Open paint program & use paste function to save it as Image.( we can use Control key & Plus key (+) to zoom before pressing printscreen).

josh on August 30, 2018:

how can i convert word presentation to image

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on July 20, 2018:

If you convert it to a PNG, then the image of text will have a transparent background. I hope that is what you want.

Rebecca on July 19, 2018:

Is there a way to do this with just text, removing the white background?

Vipin on July 11, 2018:

There is another method for converting word to image. First save word file as .pdf. Then zoom the pdf to 200%.In the edit section 'take snapshot'.Then select all and copy.Open Windows Paint and paste. Save file as .PNG.This will give you a higher resolution image.

Vipin on July 11, 2018:

Does not work for MS Word 2007 as 'Save Picture as' option is not shown during right click. Works for MS Word 2010

Lorne on June 22, 2018:

You are brilliant! Saved me a ton of time and energy. Thanks!

Nzivo Mutune on June 07, 2018:

You sure got me out of the woods...

Lisa Vale on June 05, 2018:

I get down to the last step and when I right click on the image my drop down menu does not give me the same options. I'm using word 7. Is that my problem?

Muhammad Qasim Abbas on June 02, 2018:

My Document is not showing "Portable Network Graphics".

What can be done??

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on May 26, 2018:

Yes, press the undo button.

Tania on May 25, 2018:

My document objects (table) are converted to images automatically. Is there a way to recover them?

Dave Rose on May 25, 2018:

Tried this with a Word file that is photo & text. Text portion comes out BLACK, with only photo showing. Tried JPG, TIFF and PNG, no luck....

Lisa Corkerry on May 22, 2018:

That was so helpful and easy to follow. Thanks so much!

Vijay on May 18, 2018:

Great Tip. Thank you so much!!

Greenish on May 17, 2018:

Very, very helpful. Thanks!

Richard on May 07, 2018:

I did what you suggested and placed all my content into a text box before I copied it so I could the desired image size I wanted.

Jay on March 23, 2018:

Thanks for this post!

StormsHalted (author) from Pullman, Washington, United States on March 13, 2018:

It will only work for a single page.

kkk on March 13, 2018:

Worked great! The only thing was that when I inserted that image in mi design the quality of the png was very low.

Ray on March 13, 2018:

Hi StormsHalted,

I tried and it seems it only works for single page Word file though. Is it possible to convert a multi-page Word file into a single (long) image file? Thanks!

katie on March 09, 2018:

this was SO helpful. Thank you.

Gaynor on March 01, 2018:

Thank you so much for this tip, I have been trying for ages as I wanted to flip the text so that I could print on transfer paper but could not find a way to save my document as a picture until now - very happy person