Skip to content
JFIF.IO
HEIC

What is HEIC?

HEIC is the High Efficiency Image format used by iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. It stores photos in up to half the space of JPEG, but many devices and websites cannot open it.

HEICHigh Efficiency Image Container (HEIF)
File extension
.heic, .heif, .hif
MIME type
image/heic
Introduced
2015
Compression
Lossy
Transparency
Yes
Animation
Yes
Browser support
Limited

Overview

HEIF is an MPEG standard (ISO/IEC 23008-12, 2015). HEIC is HEIF with images compressed by HEVC (H.265). Apple made it the default camera format in iOS 11 (2017) when “High Efficiency” is selected.

HEIC supports 10-bit colour, transparency, depth maps and multiple images in one file. Outside Apple’s ecosystem, support is patchy: most browsers other than Safari cannot display it, Windows needs an extension, and many websites reject HEIC uploads.

JFIF.IO decodes HEIC in your browser — natively in Safari, or with a WebAssembly build of libheif elsewhere — so your photos are converted without being uploaded.

Advantages

  • +Small files at high quality
  • +10-bit colour and depth information
  • +Default on Apple devices, so no quality lost at capture

Disadvantages

  • −Limited support outside Apple devices
  • −Rejected by many websites and apps
  • −HEVC patent licensing
  • −Slower to decode in software

How HEIC compression works

HEVC intra coding splits the image into coding tree units of up to 64×64 pixels, predicts each block with one of 35 intra modes, transforms the residual (DCT/DST), quantises it and codes it with CABAC arithmetic coding. Large photos are stored as a grid of tiles.

Common use cases

  • iPhone and iPad photos
  • Space-efficient photo libraries

Browser and software support

Safari 17 and later display HEIC. Chrome, Firefox and Edge do not. Convert to JPG for sharing.

How to convert HEIC

Use the converter at the top of this page: drop your file, choose an output format and download the result. Conversions run in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.

  • JPG has no transparency. Transparent areas will be filled with the background colour.
  • Animated images: only the first frame is converted.

Processed locally in your browser

HEIC FAQ

How do I stop my iPhone from taking HEIC photos?

Open Settings › Camera › Formats and choose “Most Compatible”. New photos will be saved as JPEG.

Is HEIC better than JPEG?

Technically yes: similar quality at roughly half the size, plus 10-bit colour. In practice JPEG is far more compatible, which is why most people convert HEIC to JPG for sharing.

Are Live Photos converted?

The still image is converted. The motion part of a Live Photo is a separate video file that is not part of the HEIC image.