About HEIC/HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format)
HEIC is the file extension Apple uses for photos stored in HEIF, the High Efficiency Image Format. Under the hood it compresses images with HEVC (H.265) video technology, which is why an iPhone photo saved as HEIC is often about half the size of the same shot as a JPEG. Apple made it the default camera format in iOS 11, so nearly every photo taken on an iPhone since 2017 is a HEIC file.
The catch is compatibility. Windows needs a paid codec to open HEIC, plenty of websites and upload forms reject it, and older software does not recognize it at all. In practice, HEIC is a format you convert away from far more often than you convert into.
Convertmaxxing reads HEIC and converts it to JPG, PNG, WebP, and other formats entirely in your browser — your photos never leave your device. One important limit: conversion is one-way. This tool can open and decode HEIC files, but it cannot create them.
Strengths
- Very efficient — photos are often roughly half the size of an equivalent JPEG
- Supports 10-bit color and wide color gamuts, which JPEG cannot match
- Can hold extras like depth maps and Live Photo data in a single container
- The no-effort default on iPhone — it just happens when you take a photo
Limitations
- Poorly supported outside Apple devices — Windows, Android, and many web forms struggle with it
- This converter can read HEIC but cannot create it — conversion is decode-only
- A risky choice for sharing, since recipients often cannot open the file
- Built on patent-encumbered HEVC compression, which is why broad support never arrived
Why a genuinely better format never took over
On technical merit HEIC deserved to win. It halves file sizes against JPEG, carries 10-bit colour where JPEG manages 8, and its container can hold depth maps, image sequences, and edit history alongside the picture. Apple did not adopt it casually — it solved a real problem as phone cameras produced ever larger files.
What stopped it was licensing. HEIC inherits HEVC’s patent situation, and HEVC is covered by multiple patent pools with overlapping claims and real per-unit royalties. Browser vendors and operating system makers who could ship JPEG, PNG, and later WebP and AVIF for free found themselves asked to pay for HEIC, and mostly declined. This is why Microsoft charges for the HEIF extension in the Microsoft Store, why no browser displays HEIC natively, and why the format remains effectively Apple-only eight years after launch. AVIF is in many ways the industry’s answer: comparable compression, royalty-free, and consequently supported everywhere.
Getting out of HEIC without losing anything important
Converting a HEIC to JPEG is a lossy-to-lossy conversion, which sounds alarming and usually is not. The HEIC has already discarded detail during capture; re-encoding at JPEG quality 85 or above adds a second, much smaller loss that is very hard to see in a photograph. What you will notice is size — the JPEG will typically be roughly twice as large for the same picture, which is precisely the efficiency you are trading away for compatibility.
Two things do get left behind. HEIC can store 10-bit colour and JPEG cannot, so wide-gamut or HDR captures are reduced to 8 bits per channel. And the extras Apple packs into the container — depth maps, Live Photo motion, burst sequences — have nowhere to go in a single still image. If those matter, keep the original HEIC and treat the JPEG as an export rather than a replacement. If you would rather avoid the conversion entirely, iPhone can be told to capture JPEG directly under Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible.
Frequently asked questions
- Why will Windows not open my HEIC photos?
- Windows does not include a HEIC decoder by default because HEVC, the compression it relies on, is patent-encumbered and carries licensing costs. Microsoft sells the codec as a paid extension in the Microsoft Store. Converting to JPEG or PNG sidesteps the problem entirely and costs nothing.
- Can I convert an image into HEIC here?
- No — conversion is decode-only, and this is a genuine limitation rather than a missing feature. The image engine ships without a HEIC encoder for the same patent reasons that keep HEIC out of browsers, so there is no way for us to create these files. Every HEIC conversion on this site goes from HEIC to something else.
- Does converting HEIC to JPEG lose quality?
- Slightly, since both formats are lossy and the image is re-encoded. In practice, at quality 85 or above the difference is very difficult to see in a photograph. The more noticeable changes are that the file roughly doubles in size and that 10-bit colour is reduced to 8-bit — so keep the original if you have HDR or wide-gamut captures you care about.
- How do I stop my iPhone creating HEIC files in the first place?
- Open Settings, go to Camera, then Formats, and choose “Most Compatible” instead of “High Efficiency”. New photos will be captured as JPEG. Existing HEIC files stay as they are, so you will still need to convert anything already in your library.
- What happens to Live Photos when I convert?
- The still frame converts normally and the motion component is not carried over — a JPEG or PNG has no way to store it. The same applies to depth maps used for Portrait mode. If those are important, keep the original HEIC alongside your converted copy.