HEIF, HEIC, HEVC: which is which
These three names get used interchangeably, and they are three different things.
HEIF is the container. It is a box format defined by MPEG that can hold one image, a burst, a depth map, thumbnails and metadata, all in one file.
HEVC is a video codec, also called H.265. It is what does the actual compressing.
HEIC is what you get when you put HEVC-compressed images inside a HEIF container. Apple picked that combination for the iPhone and gave it the .heic extension.
So every HEIC file is a HEIF file. The reverse is not true, because the container can hold other codecs.
That distinction is the whole reason this page exists separately from our HEIC to JPG converter: the HEIF family is wider than the iPhone corner of it.
The extensions nobody lists
Search for a HEIF converter and you will be offered .heic and .heif. The family is bigger than that.
| Extension | What it is |
|---|---|
.heic |
HEVC inside HEIF — the iPhone’s file |
.heics |
The same thing holding an image sequence |
.heif |
The generic name from the standard |
.heifs |
Generic, sequence |
.hif |
What Canon and Sony name their HEIF files |
.avci |
Same container, H.264 inside instead of HEVC |
The .hif row is the one that matters in practice, and it is missing almost everywhere.
How to convert HEIF files in 3 steps
1. Add the files
Drag them in, paste them, or click to browse. The picker accepts every extension in the table above, so a card full of .HIF files selects normally instead of appearing greyed out.
There is no cap on how many you add.
2. Choose the output format
Use the format dropdown at the top of the queue. JPG is selected by default because it is what most people came for.
On JPG and WebP you also get a quality slider under Advanced options. Leave it alone unless you have a size constraint.
3. Convert and download
Press Convert and each file is decoded and re-encoded on your own machine. Save them one at a time, or take the batch as a single .zip.
Large camera files take a moment. A 45 megapixel HEIF has roughly four times the pixels of a phone photo, and all of that work happens locally.
Your camera probably shoots HEIF
HEIF is not only a phone format. Canon and Sony both put it in their mirrorless bodies, and both chose .HIF as the extension.
Canon offers it across the RF-mount range, including the EOS R5, R5 Mark II, R6 Mark II, R7, R8, R3 and R1, where it sits in the image quality menu next to JPEG and raw. Sony introduced it with the a7S III and carried it into the a7 IV, a7R V, a1, a9 III, a6700 and FX30.
Both write 10-bit files, which is the point of shooting HEIF rather than JPEG in the first place: far more tonal information, in a smaller file.
The catch is downstream. A .HIF file lands in software that has never heard of the extension, and a converter whose file picker lists only .heic and .heif will not even let you select it. That is why the file picker in this HEIF converter accepts the whole family.
Choosing an output format
This HEIF converter writes four formats, and the right one depends entirely on where the image is going.
JPG is the safe default. Everything opens it, and for sharing or uploading it is almost always what you want. Ours is at HEIC to JPG as a dedicated page.
PNG is lossless and keeps transparency, which matters for graphics and screenshots rather than photographs. Our HEIC to PNG converter is the homepage.
WebP gives you the smallest file of the four at a given quality. Good for websites, occasionally refused by older software. See HEIC to WebP.
TIFF is what print shops and archives ask for. It is a big file by design, and it is the right answer when someone has specified it. See HEIC to TIFF.
If the file size is your actual constraint rather than the format, our HEIC compressor lets you name a target in KB or MB.
What you lose converting from 10-bit HEIF
Camera HEIF files are usually 10-bit. The output here is 8-bit, and it is worth being clear about what that means.
Ten bits per channel gives 1,024 levels of tone; eight gives 256. In practice you notice the difference in wide gradients — a clear sky can show banding after the drop.
For JPG that loss is not our choice. JPEG has no 10-bit mode, so any conversion to JPG is an 8-bit conversion, on any tool, anywhere.
If you need the full depth preserved, do not convert from the HEIF at all. Go back to the raw file and export from your camera maker’s software, which can write 16-bit TIFF.
For everything else — sharing, uploading, sending to someone who cannot open a .HIF — 8-bit is the format everyone downstream was expecting anyway.
What about image sequences?
Two of the extensions in that table, .heics and .heifs, hold a sequence rather than a single picture. Bursts and Live Photo stills end up structured this way.
This HEIF converter reads the primary image out of those files and converts that. For most people that is exactly right — you wanted the photo, not the animation.
If you need to see everything a container holds, our HEIC viewer lists each frame in the file and lets you step through them before you decide which one you want.
Is shooting HEIF worth it?
Worth answering, since a lot of people land here after switching their camera to HEIF and immediately regretting it.
The upside is real: 10-bit tonal data at a file size close to JPEG, which is a genuinely good trade for anything with skies, skin tones or dynamic range.
The downside is everything downstream. Your editor may not read .HIF, your client cannot open it, and the print shop asks what you sent them. That is the same licensing wall described below, and it does not go away because your camera is expensive.
The practical answer most working photographers land on is to shoot raw plus HEIF, edit from raw, and use a HEIF converter for the quick shares. That way the compatibility problem only costs you a conversion rather than a reshoot.
Why HEIF files refuse to open in the first place
Opening a HEIF needs an HEVC decoder, and HEVC is covered by a large patent pool. Shipping a decoder means paying for it.
That is why Windows asks you to buy an extension for it, why plenty of desktop applications simply refuse the file, and why the situation has barely improved in years. It is a licensing problem wearing a technical costume.
Converting sidesteps the whole thing. A JPG or a PNG carries no such baggage, which is why it opens everywhere without anyone paying anyone.
If you would rather look at a file than convert it, our HEIC viewer opens the whole family on-screen without producing an output file at all.
Converting HEIF without this page
Your computer may already be able to do it, and it is worth knowing which door to try.
On a Mac, Preview opens HEIF natively and exports to JPEG, PNG or TIFF through File and then Export. macOS has shipped the decoder since High Sierra, so nothing needs installing. Our guide to opening HEIC on a Mac has the full walkthrough.
On Windows, the Photos app can display HEIF once the HEVC Video Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store, and Microsoft charges for them. Once that is in place, Paint will re-save the file as JPEG. See opening HEIC files on Windows for the current state of that, including which free route still exists.
In Lightroom or Capture One, support depends on the version and on the camera. Canon .HIF support in particular arrived late and still trips people up.
The reason to use a HEIF converter instead is batches and predictability: the same output on any machine, without paying Microsoft, and without checking whether the version you have supports the extension your camera wrote.
The bottom line
If your file ends in .heif, .hif, .heic, .heics or .heifs, this HEIF converter reads it and gives you back JPG, PNG, WebP or TIFF.
Pick JPG unless you have a reason not to. Expect 8-bit output, and keep the original if the file came off a camera and you care about the tonal range.
And nothing you drop in goes anywhere. Camera HEIF files can be large, and not one of those megabytes leaves your machine.