Free Video-to-PDF Storyboard Creator
StoryFolder —
Last updated: 10 September 2026.
Import the video into StoryFolder, let it detect the shots, pick the frame that stands for each one, type your notes, and export Storyboard.pdf. A representative image is chosen for every shot automatically and you can change any of them. PDF export is free on every plan, within the free plan's 6 boards of 50 shots each; sign in before you export and the pages print unwatermarked.
What does the PDF contain?
One card per included shot, in order. Each card prints the shot's chosen image, an attributes strip carrying Shot number, Start timecode, Duration to one decimal, and the inclusive frame range, then whichever of your own shot fields you left visible, printed under it in full. Any of those four attributes can be switched off. Where the video has a transcript, the words spoken over that shot can print on the card too. Pages are US Letter, portrait. The file is called Storyboard.pdf.
You do not choose the filename, the page size, the layout or the branding. Nobody can comment inside the file, and publishing the board is not the way round that: the published page is view-only too. The PDF is the copy that gets printed and filed.
How do you import a video and detect its shots?
Create a board and drag the file in. Detection runs on import, and the board fills with one card per detected shot, each carrying its own image. A local .mov or .mp4 works great.
Scroll the board before you annotate anything. You are looking for the places the detector was wrong: a dissolve that slid past, or a cut between two similar angles that went unnoticed. On a 461-shot board that is a handful of cards, not a review of all of them. Correcting boundaries is the same pass whatever you are exporting, and how to make a shot list from a video that already exists covers it in full.
How do you choose the poster frame for each shot?
Right-click the frame you want and choose Set Poster Frame. That frame becomes the shot's image in the PDF.
The automatic choice is usually fine, so this is a fix for the ones that are not: a card that landed on a blur, or on the half second before someone turns to camera. On a long board, set posters on the shots the reader will actually stop at.
Save Frame… writes that one frame to disk. Copy Frame Image puts it on the clipboard for a deck or an email. Neither changes the shot's poster, and nothing in that menu alters the source video.
The poster you set is also the image an Images export writes when it is set to one frame per shot.
How do you add your own notes before the PDF?
Open a shot and type into its fields. You create the fields yourself, in six types: Text, Tag, Dropdown, Checkbox, Rating and Number. Custom fields are included on every plan, and only the fields you leave visible are printed.
What to write depends on who opens the file. Why the shot is there. The continuity problem you spotted. The change you want in the next pass. What the client said on the call. Pick one convention for the board and hold it, so the printed pages read consistently rather than shot by shot.
AI Autofill fills only the fields you switch on, and every field starts off. It is a cloud call to StoryFolder's server and a hosted vision model, with no restore point. Every plan includes it: free covers your account's first 100 shots, Pro is unlimited. See the AI Autofill guide.
Read the notes on the shots that carry the point, and on the first and last pages, the way the recipient will. A line you typed for yourself prints for whoever opens the file.
How do you leave shots out of the PDF?
The favourites and hidden toggles in the export settings decide the scope. There is no separate list of shots to tick at export time. Mark the keepers as favourites and set the export to favourites only, or hide the ones nobody needs and leave hidden off. A search query or filter narrowing the board does not carry over to the export — only favourites and hidden do.
Check the scope after you set it: favourites only decides on its own, and with it off, hidden shots stay out unless you switch the hidden toggle on.
How do you export Storyboard.pdf?
Turn on the Storyboard row in the export panel, the one described as "PDF storyboard with notes". Pick a destination folder and start the export. Progress reports per task while it runs and you can cancel it.
The file lands in the destination as Storyboard.pdf. Open it and read three pages before it goes anywhere: the first included shot, one from the middle, and the last. That catches a poster you meant to change and a field you meant to hide, the two that usually go wrong.
What happens if you also turn on a dense Images mode?
Switching Images on opens a sub-panel with three modes: One frame per shot, Every video frame, and Every N frames per shot. The dense two write PNG files named for the source frame number, like Frame-000842.png.
The PDF prints one poster per included shot whichever mode is selected, and a spreadsheet keeps one poster per row. With the Storyboard turned on, the Shot-*.png poster set is written alongside the dense frames; only when Images is the one output selected does a dense mode write Frame-*.png and nothing else. The counts beside each mode describe the shots currently included, not any product limit. Extracting frames from a video covers the modes and what N means.
What can you make on the free plan?
Storyboard PDF export and Images export are included on every plan, and so are the custom fields that become the notes on the page. The free plan holds 6 boards of 50 shots each. The 50 is per board, not per account, so six separate 50-shot boards is what the free plan gives you.
A short that detects into 461 shots is past that in one board. Current plans and limits are on the pricing page; check it rather than budgeting against a number in an article.
What should you check before you send the PDF?
The shots, the posters, the notes, the scope, and then the file itself. It takes a minute.
- The board fits the plan you are on.
- Detection has finished and you have scrolled the board for wrong boundaries.
- The shots that carry the point have posters you chose.
- Notes are written for the person opening the PDF, with nothing internal left in.
- Favourites and hidden toggles add up to the scope you want; an active search or filter does not narrow the export.
- Images mode settings are not being mistaken for PDF page content.
Storyboard.pdfopens, and the first, middle and last pages look right.
FAQ
How do I convert a video to a PDF storyboard?
Drag a local .mov or .mp4 into a board and turn on the Storyboard output; what lands in your destination folder is Storyboard.pdf. Shots are detected on import, so what you add between those two steps is your choice of image for each shot and the notes you want printed.
Is the video-to-PDF storyboard creator free? Yes. Storyboard PDF export is included on every plan, and the free plan holds 6 boards of 50 shots each. Check pricing for larger work.
Does the PDF include every frame of the video? No. It prints one chosen image per included shot, so a 461-shot board yields 461 shot cards rather than tens of thousands of frames.
What page size is the storyboard PDF? US Letter, portrait. There is no page-size or orientation control to change it.
Will a hidden shot show up in the PDF? Hidden shots are left out unless you switch the hidden toggle on, and that toggle starts off. The exception is favourites only, which decides the scope by itself, so a shot that is both hidden and favourited still prints.
Can I drop the timecode and frame numbers from the cards?
Yes. Shot, Start, Duration and Frames each carry their own switch, so a card can print the shot number alone.
What file does StoryFolder create?
Storyboard.pdf, in the destination folder you picked. The name is fixed.
Can I put two boards into one PDF?
No. The export runs on one board and writes one Storyboard.pdf, so put the shots that belong together on the same board before you export.