How to Copy or Extract Images from PDF on Mac

I need to take notes frequently when reading PDF files.  Although you can extract images from PDF with Preview app,   the images are unable to be pasted to Desktop or be glued into Markdown naturally. I did some researching and found out a very simple to extract images from PDF on Mac with Text Editor app shipped with macOS. So it is completely free.
 

How to Extract Images from PDF on Mac for Free

Step 1. Create a New .rtfd File on Mac

RTF is short for Rich Text Document, which can save plain text, images and other rich media type in a single document. To create a new .rtfd file, please open Mac’s TextEdit app and save it as Rich Text Document with Attachments format from the pop-up window.

create new rtfd mac

Step 2. Show Package Contents of .rtfd File

Right-click on the newly created TXT.rftd file and select "Show Package Contents".

open rtfd file mac

 

Step 3. Copy Images from PDF

Open PDF file with Preview or other PDF reader app and locate the images you want to extract. Then right click on the image and copy the images from PDF.

copy images from pdf on mac

 

Step 4: Open .rtf File and Paste Images to it

Run TextEdit app on Mac and open TXT.rft file. Right click on the blank space and paste the image that is copied from PDF.

paste image from pdf mac

After a few seconds view the folder and you can see the file of the picture.

extract image from pdf mac

 

Conclusion:

This is the easiest way to extract images from PDF on Mac. No software download and no need to pay a penny. Feel free to share your thought if you could find another simple way to copy images from PDF on a Mac.

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