AI to JPG Converter

Illustrator artwork out as a JPG.

FREE · NO SIGN-UP · RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE

Your files stay on your device

  • JPGSMALL ENOUGH TO MAIL
  • 400DPI MAX
  • 92QUALITY, FIXED
  • 0UPLOADS
In practice

What you can count on

  • 92quality setting
    • The same on every file
    • Nothing to guess at
  • 5resolutions
    • 96 dpi for the screen
    • 400 dpi for a poster
  • 0uploads
    • The file never leaves the tab
    • Nothing is stored anywhere
Specification

AI to JPG at a glance

What comes out
One JPG per artboard
Quality
92, not adjustable
Compression
Lossy, by design
Resolution
Five steps, 96 to 400 dpi
Background
Always white
Choosing artboards
All, or the ones you name
Input formats
PDF-compatible .ai, or PDF
What will not open
Non-PDF-compatible .ai
Color
Drawn in RGB
Price
Free
Account required
None
Where it runs
On your device
How to

How to use AI to JPG

  1. 1

    Add the AI file

    It is read here first, and says plainly if the file cannot be opened.

  2. 2

    Choose JPG and a size

    JPG is already selected on this page. 96 dpi keeps an email attachment small; 288 is for print.

  3. 3

    Download

    One artboard comes back as a JPG. Several come back as a ZIP.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no quality slider?

Because 92 is a setting almost nobody improves on by hand. Below about 80, flat colour starts to show blotches around the edges of shapes. Above 95 the file grows fast for a difference you cannot see. Resolution is the control that matters.

My logo has fuzzy edges in the JPG. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong — that is what JPG does to a hard edge between two flat colours. It was designed for photographs, where edges are soft. For a logo or anything with type, use the PNG page instead and the edges stay clean.

Can I get a transparent background?

Not as a JPG. The format has no transparency channel, so every empty part of the artboard is written as white. PNG has the same white background here, but at least supports transparency if you edit it later.

How small will the file be?

Far smaller than the same artwork as PNG — commonly a quarter of the size or less, and more than that for artwork with photographs or gradients in it. At 96 dpi a single artboard usually lands well under a megabyte.

Does converting twice make it worse?

Converting from the .ai file again does not, because it starts from the original artwork each time. What does hurt is saving a JPG as a JPG over and over in another program — each pass throws away a little more.

How can this open an Illustrator file without Illustrator?

Illustrator saves a full PDF inside the .ai file by default, and that is what gets read here. It is the same reason Preview can already show you an .ai file.

What happens if I switch to another tab while it works?

The work pauses and picks up where it left off when you come back. Browsers throttle hidden tabs, so a job left running in the background would slow to a crawl or stall outright.

Background

When JPG is the wrong answer

JPG trades a little detail for a much smaller file. That is the right trade for sending artwork to someone, and the wrong one for artwork you will keep editing.

  • JPG was built for photographs. It saves space by blurring detail that the eye forgives in a photograph and notices immediately in a logo.
  • Flat colour with a hard border, which is most Illustrator artwork, is the worst case: a faint halo appears along the edges.
  • Artwork that is mostly gradients, mesh fills or placed photographs is the best case, and JPG will be dramatically smaller than PNG for it.
  • A rule of thumb: JPG if someone will look at it and delete it, PNG or PDF if they will place it in something else.

Full specification

Specification of the AI to JPG tool
What comes outA JPG for each artboard. One artboard is a single file; more than one is a ZIP.
QualityFixed at 92 out of 100. There is no slider, because the setting that is worth arguing about is the resolution, not this.
CompressionJPG is lossy. Detail is discarded to make the file small, and saving a JPG again discards a little more.
Resolution96, 144, 200, 288 or 400 dpi, and 200 to begin with.
BackgroundWhite. JPG has no transparency at all, so a cut-out is not possible in this format.
Choosing artboardsLeave the box empty for all of them, or name them — 1-3 takes the first three.
Input formatsAI files saved with Create PDF Compatible File ticked, which is Illustrator’s default. Plain PDFs work too.
What will not openAI saved with that box unticked, and older PostScript-based AI. Nothing in a browser can read those.
ColorDrawn in RGB. Artwork set up in CMYK for print will shift on screen.
PriceFree. Supported by clearly labeled ads placed outside the working area.
Account requiredNo.
Where it runsIn your browser tab. The file is never sent anywhere.
Next step

Keep going with the same files

All image tools: Image tools on SPOTTOOLS