If you use an iPhone 11 or a later version, you’ve likely come across the HEIC file format. The same applies if you use a Mac High Sierra or later.
You may not have even noticed that Apple now uses the HEIC file format as the standard file format for images on iPhones and Macs. Most likely, you’ve only noticed it when you tried to transfer your HEIC images to a Windows PC or an Android phone.
Unfortunately, HEIC doesn’t work so well on devices not created by Apple. Fortunately, though, there are multiple ways of converting HEIC images to JPG images so you can use them on other devices.
Read on to learn more about the HEIC file format and how to convert a HEIC file to a JPG file on Windows 10.
Also Read: Best AI Image Generators
What Is HEIC?
Photo by PhotoMIX Company/Pexels
HEIC is Apple’s version of a new image file format, HEIF. HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image File, and it’s considered the superior image format compared to JPG.
However, the industry has been slow to adopt the HEIF file format. Apple, on the other hand, has adopted it as the standard file format for iOS (iOS 11 and later versions) and Mac (Mac High Sierra and later versions).
HEIC and HEIF are pretty similar. HEIF, however, usually refers to a single image.
The advantage of HEIC is that it can hold a lot of HEIF image sequences together with non-photographic media, like audio. The HEIC file format allows you to take Live Video on iOS, one of the iPhone’s most popular photography features.
Explore: Best Photo Viewers For Mac
What Is JPG?
The JPG file format has long been the standard for images. It was developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group in 1992.
In fact, the more accurate name for this file extension is JPEG, which is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. Images in this format have a file extension of .jpeg or .jpg.
JPG and JPEG are used interchangeably and mean the same thing.
What’s Good About HEIC?
Photo by Mateusz Dach/Pexels
The reason HEIF and HEIC were developed was to improve on the standard JPEG file format. In fact, HEIF allows you to compress the size of an image by up to 50% without losing any image quality.
Compressing images usually involves losing quality. The fact that HEIF images are up to 50% smaller in size than JPEG images without any quality loss allows for the following benefits:
- People who have limited space on their phones can store more images.
- People uploading photos to iCloud, Google Photos, Dropbox, or other file storing services will be able to store more images using the free plan and won’t have to pay for more space.
- People who have a lot of images on old phones won’t experience lagging.
- People who have slow bandwidth will enjoy speedier upload and download times.
A smaller file size is not the only benefit of HEIC images. They also have slightly better photo quality.
Another advantage of HEIC images is that they allow for nondestructive editing. Instead of overwriting your original image when making an edit, the HEIC file format allows you to save the edits within the original file.
That means you can undo edits after making and saving them.
What’s Bad About HEIC?
Photo by Bich Tran/Pexels
The problem with HEIC is that even though Apple has decided to go ahead and adopt it as the standard, other developers have not. Android and Windows do not have native support for HEIC files.
Understandably, that can pose a problem for people who own two phones (an iPhone and an Android) or people who have an iPhone but a Windows PC and want to transfer photos from their iPhone to their computer and edit them there.
Furthermore, many application developers have not included support for HEIC in their applications. That means that editing pictures can be tough.
Physical cameras usually do not shoot in HEIF either. JPG is still the industry standard, and there is no indication that people want developers, camera manufacturers, and companies like Microsoft to adopt HEIF as a standard.
Fortunately, there are workarounds. For example, iPhones usually automatically convert HEIC images to JPG images when you share them with a PC.
More on that later, though.
Also Read: Best Google Images Alternatives
How to Use HEIC on Windows 10?
If you have an older version of Windows, things get a bit more complicated. You’re going to need to download an app or use an online file converter to convert HEIC to JPG.
However, if you have a Windows 10 and up, you’re in luck! Since an update in 2018, Windows 10 PCs support HEIC files, which means you can open them on Windows 10.
However, you will need to download the HEIF Image Extension from the Microsoft App Store.
This extension was released by Microsoft, and it’s entirely free to use.
There are actually two extensions that you need to install. The first one is HEIF Image Extensions, which allows you to read HEIF images on Windows 10.
Check Out: Best Imgbb Alternatives
These HEIF images may have a .heic or a .heif file extension.
However, you should also install the HEVC Video Extensions app. That’s because images that are stored in HEIF files that are compressed using HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) won’t work without this extension.
If you have the right hardware, installing the HEVC Video Extensions app will also allow you to take advantage of 4K and HD videos that have High Efficiency Video Coding.
However, the HEVC Video Extensions app is just the software. You also need the hardware, such as the right processor and GPU.
Also Read: Best YouTube Videos To GIF Converters Online
How to Convert HEIC to JPG on Windows Offline (With an App)
What if you don’t want to use HEIC images as they are on Windows 10, but you want to convert them? Perhaps you’re sending the images to a friend who has a Windows 7 and who can’t access the above extensions.
In that case, you can use one of the many applications that allow you to convert HEIF to JPG. Here are the top applications to download.
CopyTrans HEIC for Windows
CopyTrans HEIC for Windows is free for personal use. It allows you to convert HEIC files to JPG.
It also allows you to view HEIC files on Windows and print them out. Furthermore, it works with Microsoft Office – if you need to insert your HEIC files into MS Office, you can use this app.
The app basically teaches Windows computers to recognize and read HEIC files. It can even help other image viewers and editors, like IrfanView, to read HEIC files as well.
One of the awesome things about CopyTrans HEIC for Windows is that you can convert HEIC images to JPG in bulk – up to 100 at a time. Since all conversions happen locally – you don’t need to launch anything – it takes a lot quicker.
When converting images from HEIC to JPG, the app will retain all of the images’ EXIF data, including geolocation, date, and more.
Again, CopyTrans is free for personal use. You can get a business license as well, which includes support for Citrix and Windows Terminal Server.
Pixillion Image Converter
Pixillion Image Converter, by NCH Software, is another nifty tool you can use. It supports not only HEIC to JPG conversions but many other file types, including RAW, PNG, GIF, NEF, and others, making it perfect for amateur and professional photographers.
You can convert HEIC images to:
- JPG
- PNG
- TGA
- GIF
- PSD
- WDP
- HDP
- JXR
- IFF
- DOCX
- BMP
- And many others
A free version is available for noncommercial use.
The tool allows you to convert thousands of photos at a time. Furthermore, it allows you to edit your photos – you can resize them or rotate them.
Using the app, you can add watermarks or captions to your photos.
iMazing Converter
Designed for Windows, iMazing Converter allows you to convert images from HEIC to JPEG. One of the advantages of using this app in particular is that it also supports HEVC videos, allowing you to convert them to MP4 files.
In addition, you can convert your HEIC images to PNG. Just drag and drop images or entire files to convert them to JPG.
While converting your photos, you can adjust the resolution, remove EXIF data, and adjust image quality.
The app is entirely free to use, and it’s also pretty small, so it won’t take up too much space on your PC.
You can easily convert images with drag and drop.
How to Convert HEIC to JPG on Windows Online?
Another option is using an online photo converter to convert your HEIC images to JPG.
There are both pros and cons to this method compared to the previous one.
On the one hand, you won’t have to download any software. If you have an HEIC image, you can convert it immediately by using an online photo converter.
On the other hand, you need the internet to use an online photo converter tool. It will use up your bandwidth, and if your internet is slow, it will take longer.
Following are the best free online HEIC photo converters.
Also Read: Best LunaPic Alternatives
Apowersoft Free HEIC Converter
Apowersoft has a suite of tools you can use for free, one of them being an online HEIC converter. You can convert either HEIC or HEIF images to JPG.
Drag and drop your HEIC images into the box, or upload them from your files.
On the top-left of the box, you will see an option to remove or keep EXIF data. On the top-right size, you will see a slider allowing you to adjust photo quality.
Remember, one of the advantages of HEIC is that it can retain the same photo quality while keeping the image a smaller size. That’s not possible with JPG.
That means that when converting HEIC images to JPG, you will need to be okay with a larger file size if you want to maintain the same quality. If you want to maintain the same file size, on the other hand, you will need to sacrifice on quality instead.
To save time, upload multiple photos at once. You can bulk convert up to 30 photos at a time using Apowersoft.
HEIC to JPG
HEIC to JPG is a simple yet effective tool for converting your HEIC images to JPG files. You can drag and drop or upload up to five photos at a time and convert them without losing image quality.
One of the upsides of using this particular tool is that when you convert images to JPG, they will automatically be optimized using JPEGMini. That means that even though you will maintain the same image quality, you won’t end up with a much larger file size.
That’s because JPEGMini has the ability to compress JPEG images without ruining image quality.
If you need to convert more HEIC images at once, you can download the JEPGMini desktop app. That will allow you to convert up to 200 HEIC images at once.
FreeConvert
FreeConvert is an online HEIC to JPG file converter tool. The maximum file upload size is 1 GB when using the free version.
If you upgrade to a premium plan, you can enjoy a maximum file size of between 1.5-9 GB, depending on your plan. If you get a premium plan, you can also convert up to 50-100 images at a time.
Below the file upload area, you will see an Advanced Settings section. These advanced settings allow you to customize your output file’s size, compression level, and more.
You can choose to keep the original image size, or you can enter the exact number of pixels (width and/or height) you want the output to be. You can also select a percentage (for example, 50% of the original image size).
Not only that, but you can also customize the output compression level. There are three options:
- Choose no compression
- Use a sliding scale to set the compression level (between 1-100; the default is 82)
- Set a maximum output file size in KB, and the tool will compress the image so the output file does not exceed that size
You can also strip EXIF data and other metadata.
Explore: Best Apps Like Remini
I Love IMG
Another tool you can use is I Love IMG. It allows you to convert multiple HEIC images to JPG images at once online.
One of the specific features I like about this tool is that it allows you to upload images not only from your computer but from your Google Drive and Dropbox storage as well. Simply connect your Google Drive or Dropbox account and convert the HEIC images you have stored there.
I Love IMG also has several other useful tools, allowing you to resize images, compress image files, and crop photos.
Cloud Convert
Another tool you can use is Cloud Convert. It also supports a wide range of other file types, like ICO and IMG.
It’s not only images that you can convert with Cloud Convert, but also other media types. You can convert:
- Ebooks
- Videos
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
- Documents
- And a lot more
You can also customize the width and height. Furthermore, you can add a watermark, choose the watermark size, and select where you want the watermark to appear.
You can also select to strip the EXIF metadata from the picture.
Overall, if you need to convert a lot of files, Cloud Convert is the tool for that. It supports over 200 file types, and it calls itself the “Swiss Army Knife” of cloud converting tools.
Also Read: Best Lightroom Alternatives
HEIC Online
Finally, the last tool on our list is HEIC Online. It’s a nifty little tool available in several languages, including English, German, French, and others.
Designed specifically to convert HEIC images to JPEG, it allows you to convert up to 100 images at a time.
You can choose the image quality, decide whether to delete the EXIF metadata, and set the image size and with.
Check Out: Best Online Pixel Editors
Convert Your HEIC to JPG While Sending Photos From Your iPhone to Your PC
By default, iPhones will convert HEIC images to JPG images when transferring them to a device that does not have native HEIC support. Apple doesn’t want to inconvenience its users too much, and it realizes that the world hasn’t followed suit in adopting HEIC as standard.
Therefore, if you transfer images from your iPhone to your Android or Windows, your phone will, by default, automatically change the file format to JPG before transferring them.
If you haven’t yet changed your settings, there’s nothing you need to do. Keep your iPhone’s default settings, and the images will show up as JPG images when they arrive on your PC.
However, if you accidentally changed the settings so that your iPhone doesn’t convert your images to JPG when transferring them to another device, you’ll need to change it back to the default.
To do that, go to “Photos” in your iPhone settings. Then, scroll down until you find “Transfer to Mac or PC.”
You’ll see two options: “Automatic” and “Keep Originals.” If “Keep Originals” is selected, your prone will NOT change your images to JPG when sending them to a PC.
You’ll need to switch it back to “Automatic.”
If you had already selected “Keep Originals” and sent your images to your PC, you have two options. You can use one of the applications or tools above to convert them to JPG images on your PC, or you can change your settings on your iPhone and resend them to your PC.
Adjust Your iPhone to Take JPG Pictures
Not everyone knows this, but you have yet another option. Instead of saving all images you take on your iPhone as HEIC images, you can change your settings so that you only take JPG images on your iPhone.
Again, Apple gives iPhone users this option to make life a bit easier for people who transfer photos regularly.
To do that, you’ll need to go to your iPhone settings and click on “Camera.” Then, click on “Formats.”
You will see two options: “High Efficiency” and “Most Compatible.” By default, if you have a newer iPhone, “High Efficiency” will be selected.
“Most Compatible” is what you want to select if you want your iPhone to store all images as JPG files.
Also Read: Best Paint Alternatives For Mac
Will More Apps Support HEIC in the Future?
That’s hard to know. It’s true that HEIC images come with many benefits compared to JPG images.
At the same time, it’s hard for developers to adopt HEIC as the standard due to patent and licensing issues. Many developers just can’t get around the legal issues that would allow them to adopt HEIC.
Furthermore, there doesn’t seem much eagerness to adopt it.
Apple adopted HEIC as the standard in 2017. Here we are five years later, and not much has changed in the rest of the industry; JPG is still the standard.
One reason for that may be that JPG images are already fairly small. True, HEIC images are even smaller, but it’s not like JPG images are massive.
The small benefits of adopting HEIC therefore do not make it worth it for developers to go through the legal hassle trying to adopt it.
Is a Mac Better for HEIC?
Photo by Format/Pexels
Absolutely. MAC computers now support HEIC images as well.
That means that you can use HEIC images on any Apple app on your macOS. It gets a little tricky when using other apps (from third-party developers) on Mac.
While some of those apps have added support for HEIC images, many still have not. .
In addition, if you have an older Mac (from before 2017), it may not support HEIC images.
Wrapping It Up
HEIC Images are definitely more common than they once were, as more people are buying newer iPhones and Macs that use the HEIC file format as the default. However, it’s not yet supported on Windows by default.
Hopefully, you now understand how to add support for HEIC files on Windows. You also understand how to convert HEIC images to JPG, either online or by using downloadable software.
Converting HEIC images to JPG isn’t difficult. Once you do it once or twice, you’ll quickly get the hang of it.
