HEIC to JPG

HEIC is Apple’s name for HEIF images compressed with HEVC (H.265), the codec used for 4K video. iPhones have used it by default since iOS 11 because it stores a photo in roughly half the space of a comparable JPEG: a typical 12 MP shot is about 1.5–2.5 MB as HEIC versus 3–5 MB as JPEG. The container can also hold several images, depth maps and 10-bit colour, which is why it is more than just “a smaller JPEG”.

The catch is compatibility. HEVC is covered by patent licensing, so Chrome, Firefox and Edge don’t ship a HEIC decoder, Windows needs an extra codec extension, and many websites reject the format outright. This converter loads libheif, an open-source HEIF decoder compiled to WebAssembly, the first time you add a file. Each photo is decoded inside a background worker in your browser tab, drawn to a canvas and encoded as JPG, PNG or WebP. Files are processed one at a time, with a progress bar and a status on every row, so a large batch never freezes the page.

Pick the output to suit the job. JPG at 85–92% quality is the safe default for sharing and printing and opens everywhere. PNG is lossless, so nothing is lost, but expect files three to five times larger than the HEIC. WebP gives JPG-like compatibility on the web at a noticeably smaller size; because the decoder only writes JPG and PNG, WebP is produced from a lossless intermediate so there is no extra generation loss.

Some HEIC files hold more than one picture, such as bursts or edited images with a stored original. By default only the primary image is exported. Switch on “Export every image” and each one is saved as name-1.jpg, name-2.jpg and so on. If a file turns out to be a JPG or PNG with a .heic extension, it is simply re-encoded instead of failing, and damaged files get a clear error rather than a blank result.