HEIC to JPG

Apple switched to HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) as the default format in iOS 11 because it produces files roughly half the size of JPG at equivalent quality. This saves significant storage space on your device. You can change this in iPhone Settings → Camera → Formats and select “Most Compatible” to shoot in JPG instead, but you’ll use more storage space.

At a quality setting of 90 (our default), the conversion is visually lossless — you won’t be able to tell the difference. Some technical quality data is lost in the conversion since JPG uses a different compression algorithm, but for sharing, printing, or web use the results are excellent. Use quality 95+ if you need the highest fidelity for professional printing.

For photos, choose JPG — it produces much smaller files and is universally supported. JPG is perfect for sharing, emailing, social media, and web use.

Choose PNG only if you specifically need a lossless format for archival purposes or if you’re planning to edit the image further and re-save it multiple times (PNG doesn’t degrade on re-save like JPG does).

Go to Settings → Camera → Formats and tap “Most Compatible”. Your iPhone will now shoot JPG and H.264 video instead of HEIC and HEVC. Note that this will use more storage space on your device since JPG files are roughly twice the size of HEIC at equivalent quality.

HEIC is a complex format that browsers don’t natively support, so we use a JavaScript library (heic2any) to decode it entirely in your browser. This is why it takes a moment to load the decoder on first use. The upside is that your photos never leave your device — unlike most HEIC converters which upload your photos to a server. For large batches, expect a few seconds per file.