What Is HEIC File and How to Convert HEIC Format?

What is HEIC file?

I used to export photos from my iPhone 7 because they have taken too much storage on my iPhone and I love to view and edit them on my Dell computer. I remember that iPhone photos should be JPG files, but I get hundreds of HEIC files this time. What is HEIC photo? 

- Question from Apple Community

What is HEIC format?

HEIC is the abbreviation of High-Efficiency Image File format. It is a new file format released by Apple to have a great quality of photos you take with an iPhone. If your iPhone is running with iOS 11 or later, you will notice the photos you took are using HEIC format.

HEIC format still compresses iPhone photos while preserving the quality as possible. Besides, to save the same image, the HEIC file takes only half of the storage that the JPG file takes. So it is a good choice for iPhone photographers.

However, HEIC is not compatible with the Windows system, which is the most common PC system. Thus if you want to transfer photos from iPhone to PC for editing or managing, it could be troublesome. You just can't view and edit directly HEIC photos on your PC. 

Next, in this post, we would like to guide you on how to enable/disable HEIC, and introduce a way of converting HEIC file to JPG photos.

How to make iPhone save images as JPG or HEIC?

Is it compulsive to save iPhone image as HEIC files? Apple is not so unreasonable. You could save your image as JPG files or HEIC files as you want.

To change the format of your iPhone photos, you need to:

Open Settings app on your iPhone > locate and select Camera section > select High Efficiency and it means you would like to save iPhone photos as HEIC files; select Most Compatible and it means you would like to save iPhone photos as JPG files.

How to view HEIC photos on Windows 10 computer?

HEIC photos would be gradually supported in more and more software. If you feel like opening HEIC photos with Photos app on Windows 10, there would be some useful tools in Microsoft Store. In this section, HEIF Image Extensions is recommended. It is a free utility.

After this package is installed, you could read and write files that use the High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format on your Windows 10 computer.

To install this package, you just need to open Microsoft Store > search HEIF Image Extension > download and install it.

Section 4. How to convert HEIC to JPG/PNG?

If HEIC can't meet your demands, you can turn to the best HEIC image converter-FoneTool. In fact, it could also help you easily get photos off iPhone.

Compared with so many online HEIC photo converters, FoneTool works on your desktop and it means there is no Internet required. You don’t have to wait for so long to upload photos to the website and then download your photos to your computer. You could change the format of your HEIC images anytime you want.

FoneTool supports converting HEIC into JPG/JPEG/PNG to let you choose the proper format for different usages. The most important thing is that FoneTool is a free HEIC converter. You could use it to convert unlimited photos.

Steps to convert HEIC to JPG on computer:

Step 1. Download and install FoneTool to computer.

Step 2. Launch FoneTool. Choose Toolbox and select HEIC Converter.

✍Note: If you want to transfer photos from iPhone to Windows computer firstly, please choose "Transfer to Computer".

Step 3. Click Add Photos to put your HIEC images into this converter.

Step 4. Select the Photo Format, Photo Quality, and Conversion Speed. Click Start Converting to get the wanted images.

Conclusion

What is HEIC file? After reading this passage, you must have known everything about this new format. Besides, you have known how to view and use the HEIC files in every way in this passage.

FoneTool helps you change the format of HEIC file into the target format as you wish without the Internet. It is really worth trying.

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