PDF keeps the document
A PDF keeps pages in order, in one file, with the recognised text layered invisibly over the image. It is the format for anything you will read, share, or file: a scanned chapter, a signed contract, a stack of receipts for the month. Search works inside it, and the page still looks exactly like the page.
JPG keeps the picture
A JPG is one page as one image. Choose it when the page is going somewhere that wants an image rather than a document — a slide, a chat message, a photo library — or when it is a figure, a map, or a diagram and the picture is the point.
Text keeps the words
Plain text drops the image entirely and keeps only what was recognised. It is the right choice when you want to quote, translate, paste into notes, or feed the words to something else. It is also the smallest export by far.
A simple rule
If someone will read it as a document, PDF. If someone will look at it as an image, JPG. If you will work with the words, text. When in doubt, PDF — it carries the picture and the words together, and the others can be made from it later.
- PDF — books, contracts, receipts, anything multi-page
- JPG — a single page, a figure, something bound for an image field
- Text — quotes, notes, translation