Convert PDF to SVG Portable Document Format ↔ Scalable Vector Graphics Free Online Secure
Drop your PDF file in and take away an SVG. You choose what happens to the pictures: they become shapes, or they stay exactly as they came — and what each choice costs is written below, before you spend time on it.
Convert your file
Drop your PDF file here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
What makes a vector different
An SVG is not a picture; it is a set of instructions for drawing one — a circle of this radius here, a line from here to there, this shape filled with that colour. It became a web standard in 2001, and because it stores the drawing rather than the result, it can be printed on a billboard from the same file that renders a sixteen-pixel icon. A PNG or a JPEG stores the opposite: a finished grid of coloured dots, with no memory of what drew them. That asymmetry decides everything on this page. Going from a vector to a raster is simply drawing the instructions at a chosen size; going the other way is tracing — a program looking at a grid of dots and guessing what shapes might have produced it.
Where you meet them
Logos, icons, maps, diagrams and charts live as SVG, because they must be legible at every size and often need to be recoloured. Favicons and app icons are produced from them. The reverse direction is for the moment a vector must become a flat image: an email client that will not display SVG, a social preview, a document to be printed by someone whose software is older than yours, or an upload form that accepts only photographs.
Questions people ask
I traced a photograph and the result looks terrible. Why?
Because tracing was never meant for photographs. It works by finding regions of similar colour and drawing an outline around each one, which suits flat artwork — a logo, a stencil, a line drawing — and fails on a photograph, where every region shades gradually into the next. The tracer has to invent a boundary where none exists, and produces either a poster-like blotch of flat patches or a file with tens of thousands of tiny shapes. For photographs, keep the raster.
Why does my SVG look different in another program?
Usually fonts. An SVG that contains text refers to a font by name and expects the machine opening it to have that font; where it does not, something else is substituted and the layout shifts. The cure is to convert the text to outlines before exporting, which turns each letter into a shape and makes the file identical everywhere — at the cost of the text no longer being editable or selectable. Advanced effects such as filters and blend modes are the other common source of differences.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people convert PDF to SVG
A PDF often holds a drawing. A logo supplied only as a PDF, a diagram from a report, a map, a floor plan, a chart or an illustration: all of these are made of shapes and text, and all of them can be useful outside the PDF. A designer wants to open the logo in a drawing program and change a colour. A web developer wants the diagram on a page, where it can scale to any screen and be styled with the rest of the site. A teacher wants a chart in a presentation that stays sharp when projected. In each case the question is the same: how do I convert PDF to SVG and keep the drawing a drawing?
The answer depends on a point that is easy to miss. A PDF page that was made from a drawing already contains the drawing: the curves, the lines, the fills and the letters. They are stored as instructions, much as an SVG stores them. So the best conversion does not guess the drawing from a picture of the page. It lifts the shapes out of the PDF and writes them into an SVG, one for one. That is what this page does, in your browser, without uploading anything.
Below you will find how the conversion works, what comes across, what the choice about pictures means, what happens with a scanned PDF and how to get a clean result.
How the conversion works
What was vector stays vector
Everything that was already vector comes across as vector: curves stay curves, lines stay lines and fills stay fills. Text stays real text, selectable and searchable, with each glyph's position preserved, not a drawing of letters. The page keeps its own size, so a drawing made for an A4 page is an A4-sized SVG.
One SVG for each page
A document of several pages comes back as several SVG files in a zip, and not squashed into one. Each page becomes an SVG of its own, with the same size and proportions as the page. You can then use only the page you need.
Why it does not trace
This does not trace, and that is deliberate. A PDF already holds the drawing, so rasterising it in order to guess the drawing back would lose on both legs of the journey: first by turning the shapes into pixels, then by turning the pixels into approximate shapes. Lifting the original shapes out is both faster and exact.
What is kept
Shapes, curves and lines
The drawing is kept as vector: curves stay curves, and shapes stay shapes. You can open the SVG in a drawing program and edit individual elements, change colours and move parts around.
Real text
Text stays real text, selectable and searchable, with each glyph's position preserved. It is not a drawing of letters, so a search engine, a screen reader or a text tool can still read it.
The page size
The page keeps its own size, and a document of several pages comes back as several SVG files in a zip, one for each page.
What you choose: pictures as shapes or as they came
Tracing is offered only for pictures placed inside the page
Some PDFs contain pictures: photographs, scans, screenshots. These are not vector, and an SVG cannot hold them as shapes unless they are traced. Tracing is offered only for such pictures placed inside the page. If you choose it, the text and the curves are left exactly as they are, while the bitmaps become shapes. If you do not, the pictures are kept exactly as they came, embedded in the SVG as pictures.
What each choice costs
Tracing a picture turns it into flat patches of colour. That is close to right for a logo or an icon and close to useless for a photograph, where it produces a poster of patches. Keeping the picture as it came is safer for photographs, but the picture then stays pixels and will blur if enlarged. Choose according to what the picture is.
What you should know before you convert PDF to SVG
Fonts
A font the PDF carries comes across with it. One of the standard fourteen, which a PDF names without carrying, is named and drawn with whatever the reader's machine has, which can shift the look without moving the glyphs. If exact lettering matters, open the SVG in a drawing program on the machine where the font is installed, or convert the text to outlines there.
A scanned PDF has no drawing inside
A scanned PDF has no drawing inside at all, only a photograph of a page. Keeping it gives you that photograph inside an SVG wrapper, and the file will not pretend otherwise. Tracing it gives patches of colour, not letters. For scans, an SVG is the wrong destination.
Several pages arrive as a zip
If your PDF has more than one page, you receive a zip with one SVG for each page. Unzip it, and use the pages you want. For a single page, you receive one SVG directly.
How to convert PDF to SVG here
Add your PDF
Drop the PDF onto the page or pick it from your device. It is opened inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Choose what happens to the pictures
Decide whether the pictures inside the page become shapes, or stay exactly as they came. If your PDF has no pictures, the choice makes no difference.
Convert and download
Press the button. Download the SVG, or the zip if the document has several pages. Open the result in a browser or a drawing program and check the text and the shapes.
A closer look at PDF and SVG
Two formats that both hold drawings
A PDF is a document format that can hold vector drawings, text and pictures on a fixed page. An SVG is a drawing format that belongs to the web and can be shown at any size. They share the idea of describing shapes with instructions, which is why a conversion from one to the other can be exact. To convert PDF to SVG is largely to rewrite the same instructions in a different file.
When the PDF is the wrong starting point
Not every PDF is a drawing. A page of ordinary text is a drawing of letters, in a sense, but turning it into an SVG gives you letters placed one by one, which is not a useful way to work with a text. For documents, PDF to DOCX or PDF to HTML are better. SVG is the right target for logos, diagrams, maps and illustrations.
Editing the result
An SVG can be opened in drawing programs, and also in a text editor, since it is written in plain text. After you convert PDF to SVG, you can change colours, delete parts or restyle with a few edits.
Common situations in detail
Logos supplied only as PDF
Clients often send a logo as a PDF. Convert PDF to SVG and you have a file you can use on a website and edit in a drawing program, with sharp edges at every size.
Diagrams for web pages
A diagram from a report can be placed on a page as an SVG, where it scales to the screen and its text can be read by search engines and assistive software.
Maps and plans
Maps and floor plans, exported to PDF, can be lifted into SVG for use on a site or for further editing, with text kept as text.
Charts for presentations
A chart saved as a PDF page can be dropped into a presentation program that understands SVG, and it will stay crisp on a large screen.
Practical advice before you convert PDF to SVG
Choose one page if you can
If only one page of a long document holds the drawing, use extract pages from PDF first. You will get a single SVG and not a zip of many.
Check whether the PDF is a scan
Open the PDF and try to select a word or click on a shape. If nothing is selectable, it is probably a scan, and an SVG will not improve it.
Keep the PDF
The PDF is the original, with its fonts and metadata. Keep it as your reference.
Test the SVG in a browser
Open the result in a browser and compare it with the PDF. Zoom in on curves and text to see that they are as sharp as expected.
Questions people ask before converting
Is the text still text?
Yes. Text stays real text, selectable and searchable, with each glyph's position preserved.
Why is my multi-page PDF a zip?
Because each page becomes an SVG file of its own, and several files travel better in a zip than squashed into one.
What does tracing do to the pictures?
It turns pictures placed inside the page into shapes, while the text and curves are left exactly as they are. It suits logos and line art, and does badly with photographs.
Why is my scanned PDF useless as an SVG?
Because it has no drawing inside, only a photograph of a page.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the file never leaves your device.
Can I turn the SVG back into a PDF?
Yes. SVG to PDF does this and keeps the drawing as a drawing.
Choosing wisely when you convert PDF to SVG
Pick the right target
If you want pictures of the pages, PDF to PNG is simpler. If you want editable text, choose a document format. SVG is for drawings.
Decide about the pictures
If the pictures are logos or line art, tracing them can give you clean shapes. If they are photographs, keep them as they came.
Start with the cleanest source
A PDF exported from a drawing program converts best, since its shapes are intact. A PDF made by scanning paper has none.
Getting a good result after the conversion
Open it in a drawing program
Look at the structure: groups, layers and shapes. You may need to ungroup or tidy, since a PDF does not always keep the logic of the original design.
Check the fonts
If the lettering looks different, install the right font, or convert the text to outlines on a machine where the font is available.
Optimise if you publish
For a web page, an SVG exported from a PDF may contain more detail than needed. Many drawing programs and tools can simplify it so that the page loads faster.
Working with the SVG after you convert PDF to SVG
Use it on a web page
An SVG can be placed on a page like a picture, or written directly into the page so that it can be styled. Once you convert PDF to SVG, try both. As a picture it behaves simply; written into the page, its colours and text can be changed with the same style sheet as the rest of the site.
Change colours and parts
Open the file in a drawing program and select a shape to recolour it. Because the shapes were lifted out of the PDF one for one, they can be moved, deleted or replaced individually. This is the main reason to convert PDF to SVG and not to a picture.
Mind the layers
A PDF does not always keep the layers or the names of the original drawing. The shapes may be grouped differently from how the designer built them. Spend a few minutes ungrouping and naming the parts that you intend to change.
Shrink the file for publishing
Drawings from a PDF may carry a lot of detail and long numbers. A tool that optimises SVG will round the numbers and merge shapes, often cutting the size by half without any visible change. It is worth doing before a drawing goes onto a busy page.
Give it a text description
An SVG on a public page should carry a short description so that people who use screen readers know what it shows. Add a title element to the file, or an alternative text where it is placed on the page.
Keep the original
Whatever you do to the SVG, keep the PDF. It holds the exact fonts and the page as the author intended, and you can always convert PDF to SVG again.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for drawings
Plans, designs and diagrams may be confidential before they are published. Many online converters upload your file to a server, process it and send back the result, and for a while a copy lives on a machine you do not control. Here your own browser does the work, so the drawing stays on your device.
What happens when you leave
When you close the page, the converted file disappears from the browser, so download it first. Nothing about your drawing is kept.
If something goes wrong
The text looks different
The font was one of the standard fourteen or was not carried by the PDF, and your system drew it with another. Install the font or outline the text.
The SVG is very large
Pictures kept as they came are embedded in the file and make it heavy. Trace them if they are simple, or reduce them before you convert.
The page freezes with a large document
Everything runs on your device, and a long document needs memory. Try again on a computer, or convert one page at a time.
Related tools
The same family of tools covers the neighbouring jobs. To go back, SVG to PDF keeps a drawing as a drawing. For pictures of the pages, use PDF to PNG or PDF to JPG. For tracing a picture into shapes, there are PNG to SVG and JPG to SVG. For editable text, PDF to DOCX reads the words of a PDF, and extract pages from PDF picks out the page you need.
A worked example
Say a client sends you their logo as a PDF of one page, and you need it on their website. You drop the PDF here, leave the pictures as they came, since there are none, and press the button. A moment later you download one SVG with the same size as the page. You open it in a browser and the logo is sharp at every zoom. You place it on the site, where it scales to every screen. The PDF stays in your folder as the client's original.
A short checklist
Before converting
Check that the PDF is not a scan. Pick the page you need. Decide what to do with the pictures.
While converting
Stay on the page until the file is ready.
After converting
Open the SVG in a browser and a drawing program, check text and shapes and keep the PDF.
Common mistakes
Expecting magic from a scan
A scanned PDF has no drawing inside. Do not convert PDF to SVG hoping to get vector shapes from a photograph.
Tracing photographs
Tracing a photograph gives a poster of patches. Keep photographs as they came.
Using SVG for ordinary text pages
A page of text is better converted to a document format.
Your document stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your PDF is read by your own browser, its shapes are lifted out there and handed back as SVG. Nothing is uploaded, so no copy ends up on a server and nobody else can read it. For unpublished designs, that is the safe way to convert PDF to SVG.
Summary
To convert PDF to SVG here, drop the document, choose what happens to the pictures and press the button. Everything that was already vector stays vector: curves stay curves, and text stays real text, selectable and searchable, with each glyph's position preserved. The page keeps its own size, and a document of several pages comes back as several SVG files in a zip. This does not trace, and that is deliberate: a PDF already holds the drawing, so rasterising it to guess the drawing back would lose on both legs of the journey. Tracing is offered only for pictures placed inside the page. A scanned PDF has no drawing inside at all, only a photograph of a page. Nothing leaves your device.