This tutorial will teach you how to export a .jpg from Premiere Pro. .jpg stands for JPEG and is a common file extension for still graphics.
Exporting a .jpg from Premiere Pro is useful if you need to send a client or director a frame of video. It could be to ask a question like, “Is this the shot you’re talking about?” You can also export a .jpg from Premiere Pro so you can make a custom thumbnail for a YouTube video.
Decide on the Frame You Want to Export as a jpg in Premiere Pro
The first step in order to export a .jpg from Premiere Pro is to decide on the frame. Once you determine the frame you want to export hit the “i” key and “o” key to set an in point and out point.
You can do this in the Timeline/Program Panel or in the Source Panel. Make sure you keep the Timeline/Program Panel or Source Panel as the active panel when you do the next step.
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Choose Your Export Settings in Premiere Pro
Next hit Command+M if you’re on a Mac or Control+M if you’re on a PC to bring up Premiere Pro’s Export Settings. Alternatively you can go under File > Export > Media.
Under the Format dropdown, select JPEG.
A couple lines below Format, you’ll see Output Name. Click the blue text to change the name of the file and set the file destination.
Now, pay close attention! Before hitting Export there’s one more thing you have to do. Under Source Range choose Sequence In/Out. If you don’t do this, Premiere Pro will make a .jpg for every single frame of video on your timeline. We’re talking thousands of files. Do not forget this step.
Once you’ve done this you can now hit Export in the Export Settings window.
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Alternative Exports to JPEG
If you want to do a different still graphic than a .jpg, Premiere Pro also allows you to export .png and .tif. I prefer to use .jpg when I’m sending something quick to be thumbed up or thumbed down. However when I want to use the image in another program or for another purpose, I’ll export a .png. The .png will result in a larger file size than the .jpg.
When exporting a frame to be used as a YouTube thumbnail, I recommend exporting a .jpg since the YouTube thumbnails have to be a pretty small file size — under 2MB at the time of this writing.
Before You Go…
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– Josh