Convert MP4 or any video to PNG frames

How to convert MP4 to PNG

1. Drop your video onto the page, or choose it with the file picker.
2. Under Grab, pick This frame to save the picture at the playhead, or One every… to save a series. The series starts at 5 seconds apart, and you can change that with the slider.
3. Check that Save as is set to PNG, which is labelled Sharpest.
4. Choose a Width: 320, 640, 1280 or Original.
5. Press Save frames. Save the PNG files one by one, or take them all in a ZIP.

The file does not have to be an MP4. A MOV from a camera, or a WebM, MKV, M4V, AVI, WMV, FLV, MPG or TS file, goes through exactly the same steps, so MOV to PNG is no different. A few of them, such as some AVI or WMV files, take longer, as explained further down.

The panel shows how many Pictures you will get and the approximate Size of the whole set before you start. PNG files are bigger than JPG files, so it is worth a look at that figure when you are saving many frames.

Saving one exact frame

With This frame selected, the tool takes the picture at the playhead and shows the time, for example 0:03.20. The left and right arrow keys step a single frame, and Shift with an arrow steps one second. This is how you pick a precise video frame to PNG, such as the moment a menu opens or a line of text finishes typing.

Saving a run of frames

With One every… the slider sets the gap, anywhere from 1 to 60 seconds. On a clip shorter than a minute, the slider stops at the length of the clip. A single run can save up to 600 pictures, and if the gap would give more, the tool asks you to raise it. Files are numbered in order, in a pattern like name_0001.png, so they line up in the order of the video.

So a video to PNG sequence from this tool holds one picture per second of video at most. It does not export every frame: a clip filmed at 30 frames a second has 30 of them in each second, and the tool keeps one. With the gap at 1 second, a video of 10 minutes or less fits in a single run.

Why choose PNG for lossless video frames

PNG does not throw detail away when it saves a picture. That makes it the safe pick whenever you may edit, enlarge or print the result, because there is no extra loss stacked on top of what the video already has.

Typical examples are a slide from a recorded talk, the error message in a screen recording, or a title card with a logo. In each case you want to extract PNG frames from video that are ready to drop into a document without a second pass of clean-up.

One point is worth being honest about. A PNG cannot be sharper than the video it came from. Almost every video is stored with lossy compression, so if it was squeezed hard, you will see that softness in the PNG too. What PNG guarantees is that saving the frame adds no loss of its own. Our guide to lossy vs lossless compression shows where that line sits.

PNG compared with JPG

The two formats make different trade-offs. PNG is bigger and exact. JPG is smaller and simplifies fine detail. A set of 100 PNG frames at Original width can be many times heavier than the same set as JPG, so pick PNG when the quality of each picture matters more than the total weight.

If you are not sure, save a few frames both ways and compare them at full size. You can switch Save as at any time, and nothing is lost by trying. For the wider picture, including transparency and which one suits photographs, read JPEG vs PNG.

Choosing the right width

Width controls the size of each picture.

• 320 for small previews and thumbnails in a list.
• 640 for pictures that will sit in a document or a web page.
• 1280 for a large, detailed picture. This option is switched off when the video is narrower than 1280.
• Original for the full width of the video, which is the one to use for editing, print or archive.

Because PNG files are large, a bigger width multiplies the total size quickly. If the Size figure climbs higher than you like, choose a smaller width or a longer gap between frames.

Get a clean set of PNG frames from a long video

A long recording at a short interval makes a lot of large files. A few habits keep the set useful instead of overwhelming.

• Cut first. If you only need a few minutes, use trim video to keep that part, then save frames from the shorter file.
• Remove borders. If a recording has black bars or desktop edges, crop video first so every PNG is already framed the way you want.
• Pick the gap to match the content. A slide deck that changes every 20 seconds does not need a picture every second.
• Use the ZIP. With many pictures, Save all as ZIP gives you one download in the order of the video.

If you end up with more PNG files than you can store comfortably, the same tool can save JPG instead. The video to JPG page opens it with that format chosen, and the files are much smaller.

Several videos at once

Add more than one video and each gets its own run of PNG frames, based on its own length. The button then says how many videos it will save frames from. The Width you chose applies to all of them.

Private, free and in your browser

The frames are taken inside your browser, on your own computer. The video is not uploaded, and the server does no video work. The details of how it works are in the privacy policy.

• Free, with no account and no watermark on the pictures.
• Not counted in the free daily limit, which is only for document conversions.
• Most videos have no size limit. A few files, such as some AVI or WMV, are slower and can be up to 2 GB.
• Works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

If you want motion rather than stills, video to GIF turns up to 30 seconds into an animated GIF. The same frame saver also appears as Video to images among the video tools.