Converter / To PNG

Convert HEIC to PNG in the browser

JPEG is what most websites still mean by “a photo”. PNG is what some other tools mean: a lossless still that can carry transparency. If an upload box, printer, or editor lists PNG and rejects JPEG (or the other way round), that is a file-type rule, not a judgement of the picture. This page is for the PNG case.

When PNG is the copy you want

Use PNG when the recipient named it, or when you need a copy that does not throw away pixels the way JPEG does.

• The form or tool rejects JPEG. Some portals, design tools, and print workflows accept PNG and refuse .jpg. Convert to what they asked for rather than renaming the extension.
• You need lossless. JPEG discards some detail to shrink the file. Every extra JPEG save can add more of that. PNG does not use that trade-off. The quality slider on the converter applies to JPEG only.
• Transparency matters. JPEG has no alpha channel. PNG can keep one. Typical iPhone camera stills are opaque photographs, so you will not magically get a cut-out background from a normal HEIC. If the HEIC actually has transparency (some screenshots and exports), PNG can preserve it and JPEG cannot.

A PNG of a photograph is usually larger than the JPEG this converter makes at default quality. If you only need something that will attach to email or a typical website, JPEG is usually the smaller copy. If you need one PDF for a form, skip PNG and build a PDF of the selected stills — that path does not require a PNG download.

Make the PNG here

1. Open the converter in a current browser.
2. Drop one or more .heic or .heif stills. Files that are already JPEG or PDF, and Live Photo video, are rejected with a short note on the card.
3. Wait until the card shows a thumbnail. Both JPEG and PNG are encoded in this tab from the decoded still. Nothing is uploaded.
4. Choose Download PNG. The filename ends in .png. Download JPEG stays on the same card if you need that copy as well.

Open the converter

JPEG, PNG and PDF on the same drop

You do not convert twice. One HEIC still becomes a JPEG (quality slider, often smaller) and a PNG (lossless, often larger). Tick “Include in PDF” to put the JPEG encoding into an A4 PDF. Changing the quality slider later does not rewrite files already in the list; it applies to the next HEIC you add.

For a batch on Windows, the same converter is enough — see HEIC to JPEG on Windows if JPEG is what you actually need.

What this will not do

• Live Photo video is omitted. Only the still is decoded.
• It will not shrink a photo to a portal’s megabyte cap. PNG of a full-resolution iPhone still can be several megabytes larger than JPEG.
• It will not invent transparency that was not in the original.
• It will not install HEIC codecs for the rest of the operating system.

For the camera setting that writes JPEG on new shots, see why iPhone photos are HEIC and how to get a JPEG that will upload.