Convert HEIC to PNG, HEIF too, and keep every pixel

When PNG is the right choice for a HEIC photo

JPG saves a photo with compression, which leaves out fine detail. Each time a JPG is edited and saved again, a little more goes. With PNG you keep every pixel as it is, so a photo can be edited and saved as often as you like without getting worse.

• You want to edit iPhone photos in a program that does not open HEIC, and save them several times along the way.
• You are building a layout, a poster or a slide deck, and the design program prefers PNG.
• You want an archive copy that opens anywhere and loses nothing more.
• A website or a print service asks for PNG files.
• You want a website icon made from a photo: a PNG is what PNG to ICO starts from.

If you only want to share, email or upload the photos, pick JPG instead. HEIC to JPG makes files a fraction of the size, and at its higher Quality settings the difference is very hard to see.

How to convert HEIC to PNG

1. Copy the HEIC photos from your iPhone to your computer.
2. Press Select images and pick them, or drop them anywhere on the page.
3. Convert to is already on PNG. There is no Quality to choose, because PNG keeps every pixel.
4. Look at the stage. Split view puts the HEIC on the left and the PNG on the right, with a divider you can drag.
5. Press Convert, then save. IMG_4021.HEIC comes out as IMG_4021.png.

HEIF to PNG works the same way. HEIF is the wider format family that HEIC belongs to, and a file ending in .heif opens here just like a .heic one: photo.heif comes out as photo.png.

If your browser cannot open HEIC on its own, as Chrome and Firefox cannot, a HEIC reader of about 1.5 MB loads the first time you add a photo. It stays loaded while the page is open.

The PNG tile under Convert to shows the size your file will have. Once the PNG has been made in the background the number is exact, so you know how much space the result needs before you save it. The other tiles show what JPG, WebP and the rest would give for the same photo, so you can compare before you decide.

HEIC or PNG: quality and PNG file size

The two formats sit at opposite ends. HEIC squeezes a photo into very few bytes; PNG keeps everything and pays for it in size.

One thing PNG cannot do is bring back detail. The phone already compressed the photo when it saved the HEIC, so the PNG is an exact copy of that picture, not of the scene. What it does guarantee is that nothing more is lost from here on.

A good habit for a big edit: convert to PNG, do the editing, and save a JPG copy only at the end for sharing. You keep every pixel while you work, and still end up with a small file to send. Convert image turns the finished PNG into a JPG in one step.

If the PNG file size is a problem, the quickest fix is fewer pixels. Resize the image to the width you need, and the PNG shrinks with it while staying sharp.

Converting a whole batch to PNG

To batch convert HEIC to PNG, select up to 100 photos at once, or add more from the work screen. Each is converted the same way, and the button counts them: Convert 30 pictures. When it is done, Save all as ZIP saves every PNG together in one file.

• Each PNG is squeezed by a careful PNG optimiser, which makes the file smaller without changing a single pixel.
• The Result line adds up the batch as an estimate, marked ≈, so you can see roughly how much space the PNGs will need.
• A photo that cannot be read says This HEIC file could not be read, with the reason. The others carry on.
• Because PNG files are big, make sure there is room on your computer for the ZIP.
• If a PNG slips into the batch, it is saved again with _converted in its name, so the original is never overwritten.

Every PNG is drawn fresh from the photo's pixels. A photo taken with the phone sideways comes out the right way up, and the location, camera and date details in the HEIC are not copied into the PNG.

Photographed a page, a sign or a receipt? Once it is a PNG, Image to Text can copy the text from the picture. It does not open HEIC itself, and it reads pictures on our server, not in your browser.

Private, free and in your browser

Phone photos are personal, so this HEIC to PNG converter never sends them anywhere. The HEIC reader and the PNG encoder both run inside the page, on your own device. That also means the speed depends on your computer: a batch of large photos takes longer on an older laptop than on a fast desktop, and keeping the tab open lets it finish.

• Nothing is uploaded, and our server does no picture work.
• It is free, with no account and no watermark. Image tools are not counted in the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
• It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large pictures may be too big for your browser.

Other pictures open on this page too, and come out as PNG. For a WebP saved from a website there are pages set up to convert WebP to PNG or convert WebP to JPG, and Convert image handles the rest.