HEIC to BMP Converter

What happens when you convert HEIC to BMP

• The image is decoded and written as a 24-bit uncompressed bitmap.
• Browsers other than Safari cannot read HEIC, so a decoder of about 1.3 MB is fetched when you press Convert.
• BMP is lossless, so no further detail is lost, but it cannot restore detail the HEIC compression already removed. Expect a larger file.

How to convert HEIC to BMP online

1. Press "Choose HEIC files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. You can add files of any size your device can hold in memory.
2. Adjust the settings if you need to. The output is lossless, so there is no quality setting to worry about.
3. Press "Convert to BMP". Images convert in a second or two each.
4. Save each BMP with its download button. Close the tab and every trace of the files is gone from memory.

Why convert HEIC to BMP?

HEIC files usually come from photos taken on iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. People convert them to BMP because BMP is read by almost every Windows program, embedded display and old piece of software.

In short, HEIC is good at what it was made for, and BMP is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. Safari on Apple devices shows HEIC; Chrome, Edge and Firefox cannot, while BMP opens in browsers and every Windows image tool.

How to convert HEIC to BMP on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

On Windows

Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your HEIC files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each BMP is saved to your Downloads folder. Paint can also re-save an image as BMP with Save as, provided Windows can open the HEIC in the first place.

On a Mac

Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the HEIC files from Finder onto the drop zone and the BMP files land in Downloads.

On iPhone and iPad

Open the page in Safari and tap Choose HEIC files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted BMP appears in Files, in the Downloads folder; to put it in your photo library, open it there, tap Share and choose Save Image. To stop the iPhone creating HEIC files in future, go to Settings, Camera, Formats and choose Most Compatible.

On Android

Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose HEIC files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The BMP is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.

Best settings for HEIC to BMP

A 24-bit BMP stores every pixel uncompressed, three bytes each, so size is simply width times height times three: a 12 megapixel photo becomes about 36 MB. Use the Maximum width setting if the program that needs the BMP does not need full resolution.

HEIC vs BMP: the differences

About HEIC and BMP files

What is a HEIC file?

iPhones save photos as HEIC because it is roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG. The catch is compatibility: Windows needs an extra codec, and most upload forms and older software reject it.

What is a BMP file?

BMP usually stores pixels with no compression at all, so a 12 megapixel photo is about 36 MB. That size is the price of being readable by almost any program ever written for Windows.

HEIC to BMP not working? Common problems

• Colours look slightly different. Browsers convert images to the standard sRGB colour space when they decode them, so wide-gamut and CMYK images can shift a little.
• A phone photo comes out upright even though it looked sideways elsewhere. That is correct: the rotation stored in the photo is applied during conversion, so the BMP is always the right way up.
• The HEIC will not load. Some HEIC files hold depth maps or bursts; the main image is converted. If nothing loads, try again in Safari on the iPhone itself, or set Settings, Camera, Formats to Most Compatible for future photos.

Convert HEIC to BMP from the command line

If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts HEIC to BMP in one line:

magick input.heic output.bmp

To convert every HEIC in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format bmp *.heic. Your ImageMagick build needs HEIC support (libheif), which the official installers include. The converter on this page does the same job without installing anything.