Convert PDFs to images on iOS

To render an image from a PDF file in Nutrient iOS SDK, you need to do the following:

// Create a URL for the PDF file.
guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "report", ofType: "pdf") else { return }
let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: path)


// Instantiate a `Document` from the PDF file's URL.
let document = Document(url: url)


let pageIndex: PageIndex = 0
guard let pageImageSize = document.pageInfoForPage(at: pageIndex)?.mediaBox.size else { return }


// Create a render request from your `Document`.
let request = MutableRenderRequest(document: document)
request.imageSize = pageImageSize
request.pageIndex = pageIndex


do {
    // Create a render task using the `MutableRenderRequest`.
    let task = try RenderTask(request: request)
    task.priority = .utility
    PSPDFKit.SDK.shared.renderManager.renderQueue.schedule(task)


    // The page is rendered as a `UIImage`.
    let image = try PSPDFKit.SDK.shared.cache.image(for: request, imageSizeMatching: [.allowLarger])
} catch {
    // Handle error.
}

The RenderTask API used in the above example is an asynchronous API that won’t block the main thread when rendering a PDF page to an image. It includes an image cache by default, so multiple render calls for the same page are fetched directly from the cache. For a more detailed explanation of image rendering, check out our guide on rendering PDF pages and our blog post on converting a PDF to an image.

Additionally, Nutrient provides another API to render a PDF page to an image: imageForPage:at:size:clippedTo:annotations:options. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a synchronous call that will block the main thread when it’s rendering a particularly large or complex PDF page.