Convert HEIC to JPG

About HEIC and why you might need JPG

What is a HEIC file?

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container — the format Apple has used for photos since iOS 11 in 2017. It stores an image at roughly half the file size of an equivalent JPG with no visible loss in quality, which is why your iPhone can hold thousands of photos without filling up. The format can also hold extras a JPG cannot, such as the frames of a Live Photo or depth information from Portrait mode.

Why convert HEIC to JPG?

The problem is not quality, it is support. HEIC is still not universally readable, so you will run into it when you:

• upload a photo to a website or web form that rejects the file
• send pictures to someone using Windows or an older Android phone
• print at a photo lab or kiosk that only accepts JPG
• attach an image to a job application, insurance claim or official form
• open the file in older editing software that has never heard of HEIC

JPG has been the standard since the 1990s and works everywhere, which makes it the safe choice whenever the photo is leaving your own device.

Will the photo look worse?

Very slightly, and almost certainly not in a way you will see. Both formats throw away some data to save space, so converting between them re-encodes the image once. This tool uses a 90% quality setting — high enough that the result looks identical on a screen or in print, while keeping the file at a sensible size. The one real difference is that the JPG will usually be larger than the HEIC it came from, because JPG is simply the less efficient format.

Can I stop my iPhone making HEIC files?

Yes, if you would rather not convert them at all. Open Settings, tap Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible instead of High Efficiency. Your phone will start saving new photos as JPG. Bear in mind they will take up noticeably more space, and this only affects photos taken from that point on — everything already in your library stays as it is.

Why nothing is uploaded here

Most online converters send your photo to a server, convert it there, and send the result back. That means your picture — which might be a passport scan, a document or something personal — sits on a machine you do not control, under a retention policy you never read. This tool works the other way around: the code that does the conversion is downloaded to your browser along with the page, and your photo is read from disk, converted in memory, and handed straight back to you. The simplest proof is that you can disconnect from the internet after this page loads and the converter still works.