Make a contact sheet of PDF pages or photos
A contact sheet shows many pages or pictures at a glance, as small thumbnails on a single sheet. The PDF Contact Sheet maker builds one from any mix of PDFs and images: every page of every PDF, and every photo, lands in a tidy grid on A4, Letter, A3 or Legal paper, with captions telling you which file and page each thumbnail came from.
Use it to review a long report or a slide deck before printing, give a client a one-page overview of a photo shoot, check a scanned archive for missing or upside-down pages, or file a visual index alongside a set of documents.
Everything runs in your browser. PDF pages are placed as vector graphics, so thumbnails stay sharp when you zoom in, and your files are never uploaded.
How to make a contact sheet
- Drop your PDFs and images onto the upload area. Reorder them with the arrows or “Sort by name”.
- Choose the sheet size and orientation, then the number of columns and rows per sheet.
- Set the spacing and margin, pick a caption style and a cell background, and type a title for the header.
- Press Create contact sheet and flip through the preview with the arrow buttons.
- Press Download PDF to save it, or print it straight away.
PDF Contact Sheet features
PDFs and photos together
Mix PDFs with JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and BMP images. Photos are turned upright using their camera orientation.
Any grid
From 1 to 12 columns and up to 16 rows per sheet, in portrait or landscape, with adjustable spacing and margins.
Helpful captions
Show file name and page, page number only, file name only or a running number — long names are shortened in the middle so the extension stays visible.
Header and sheet numbers
A title, the date, the item count and “Sheet 1 of 3” make printed sheets easy to file.
Sharp, faithful thumbnails
PDF pages are embedded as vectors at their real crop size and rotation; images keep their proportions.
Any language
File names in Hindi, Chinese, Arabic and other scripts are drawn with your device’s fonts when the built-in PDF fonts can’t show them.
Choosing a grid
Thumbnail size depends on the grid, sheet and margins. Cell sizes on portrait A4 with 10 mm margins, 5 mm spacing and the header switched on (the caption takes a few millimetres of each cell):
| Grid (columns × rows) | Per sheet | Cell size | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 × 3 | 6 | 92.5 × 82 mm | Photo proofs clients can read details on |
| 3 × 4 | 12 | 60 × 60.5 mm | Slide decks and reports |
| 4 × 5 | 20 | 44 × 47 mm | General overviews (default) |
| 5 × 7 | 35 | 34 × 32 mm | Long documents and scan checks |
| 6 × 8 | 48 | 27.5 × 27.5 mm | Very long documents, archive indexes |
Contact sheet or n-up?
A contact sheet is an index: small thumbnails, captions, a header, and many files in one go. If you instead want to print a document on fewer sheets of paper, where each page is as large as possible with no captions, use PDF N-up. To arrange a few photos into one decorative picture, try the Collage Maker.
Need the page images as separate files instead? PDF to JPG exports every page as a picture, and JPG to PDF turns photos into full-size PDF pages.
Tips
- Photographers: choose the dark cell background — it frames photos the way traditional contact prints do.
- Large photos are scaled to at most 1,600 pixels for the sheet, which is sharp for any thumbnail and keeps the PDF compact.
- Password-protected PDFs need their password removed first.
- Links, comments and filled form fields are not shown in thumbnails, because they sit on a separate layer above the page.
PDF Contact Sheet FAQ
How do I make a contact sheet from a PDF?
Add the PDF, choose how many columns and rows you want per sheet, and press “Create contact sheet”. Every page appears as a captioned thumbnail; download the result as a PDF.
Can I make a photo contact sheet?
Yes. Add JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF or BMP photos — on their own or mixed with PDFs. Each photo becomes a thumbnail captioned with its file name.
Can I combine several PDFs on one contact sheet?
Yes. Add as many files as you like; their pages follow one another in the order of the file list.
Will the thumbnails be sharp when printed?
PDF pages are placed as vector graphics, so text and drawings print crisply at any size. Photos are kept at up to 1,600 pixels on the long side.
Why is my caption shortened?
Captions are trimmed to the width of the cell. The middle of the file name is replaced with “…” so the start and the extension stay readable. Use fewer columns for longer captions.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The contact sheet is created in your browser and your files never leave your device.