HEIC to JPG

// Why your iPhone photos won't open on anything else

HEIC is the High Efficiency Image Container, the default format iPhones shoot in. It stores photos in less space than JPG at comparable quality, which is why Apple uses it. The catch: most Windows programs, older image editors, and plenty of web upload forms have no idea what to do with a .heic file. You get an error, a blank thumbnail, or a rejected upload.

JPG is the opposite case. It opens in practically every app, operating system, and upload form ever made. Converting HEIC to JPG is not about improving the image, it is about handing the photo to software that was never taught Apple's format. That is the whole job this tool does.

// How the conversion works in your browser

Browsers cannot decode HEIC natively, so this tool ships a WebAssembly build of libheif, the open-source HEIC decoder. Your photo is decoded to raw pixels locally, drawn to a canvas, and re-encoded as a JPG at the quality level you pick with the slider. Nothing is sent to a server, and once the page has loaded the converter keeps working offline.

One side effect worth knowing: re-encoding through a canvas strips the EXIF metadata, including GPS location and camera details. If you are converting a photo to share it, that is a privacy bonus. If you need the metadata preserved, this tool will not keep it.

// fair questions

Do my photos get uploaded to a server?

No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser and the file never leaves your device. The HEIC is decoded and re-encoded locally, and the tool keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

Will the JPG look worse than the original HEIC?

JPG is a lossy format, so the conversion does re-compress the image. At a high quality setting the difference is not visible for typical photos. Keep the slider high if you plan to edit or print the result.

What happens to the location data embedded in my photo?

It is removed. The conversion re-encodes the image through a canvas, which strips EXIF metadata such as GPS coordinates and camera info. The output JPG carries none of it, which is usually what you want before sharing.

Why can't Windows open HEIC files in the first place?

HEIC stores images with HEVC compression, and the codecs for it are not installed by default on many Windows machines, so most programs never added support. Converting to JPG sidesteps the codec problem entirely.