What happens when you convert HEIC to PDF
- The HEIC is placed on a PDF page the same size as the image, stored losslessly.
- Browsers other than Safari cannot read HEIC, so a decoder of about 1.3 MB is fetched when you press Convert.
How to convert HEIC to PDF online
- 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.
- Adjust the settings if you need to. The output is lossless, so there is no quality setting to worry about.
- Press "Convert to PDF". Images convert in a second or two each.
- Save each PDF with its download button. Close the tab and every trace of the files is gone from memory.
Why convert HEIC to PDF?
HEIC files usually come from photos taken on iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. People convert them to PDF because a PDF looks the same on every device and is what forms, portals and printers ask for.
In short, HEIC is good at what it was made for, and PDF 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 PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer.
How to convert HEIC to PDF 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 PDF is saved to your Downloads folder.
On a Mac
Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the HEIC files from Finder onto the drop zone and the PDF files land in Downloads. Preview can do single images too: open the file, choose File, then Export, and pick PDF.
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 PDF appears in Files, in the Downloads folder. 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 PDF is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.
Best settings for HEIC to PDF
Each image becomes one page sized to the image at 96 pixels per inch, so a 1200 pixel wide image makes a page 12.5 inches wide. PDF viewers and printers scale pages to fit, so the page size rarely matters on screen.
The HEIC is stored with lossless compression inside the PDF, so it is exactly as sharp as the original. Transparent areas are placed on a white page.
HEIC vs PDF: the differences
| HEIC | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | High Efficiency Image Container | Portable Document Format |
| Type | image | document |
| Created by | the Moving Picture Experts Group, adopted by Apple | Adobe |
| First released | 2017 | 1993 |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Vector or raster | Raster | Vector |
| Colour | up to 16-bit colour | any colour, pages can mix text, vectors and images |
| In a browser | Safari on Apple devices shows it; Chrome, Edge and Firefox cannot | opens in every browser's built-in viewer |
| Common uses | photos taken on iPhones and iPads since iOS 11 | documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files |
| MIME type | image/heic | application/pdf |
About HEIC and PDF 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 PDF file?
A PDF fixes the layout of every page so it looks the same on any device. Converting a PDF to an image renders each page to pixels; converting an image to PDF wraps it as a page.
HEIC to PDF 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 PDF is always the right way up.
- Transparent areas turned white. PDF cannot store transparency; convert to PNG or WebP instead if you need it.
Convert HEIC to PDF from the command line
If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts HEIC to PDF in one line:
magick input.heic output.pdfTo convert every HEIC in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format pdf *.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.
HEIC to PDF converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting HEIC to PDF?
No further quality is lost, because PDF is written losslessly. Detail the HEIC compression already removed does not come back.
Why is the PDF a different size from the HEIC?
The PDF is usually larger, because it stores every pixel without compression losses, while the HEIC was compressed lossily.
Are my HEIC files uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs inside this browser tab using your browser's own image decoder, so your files stay on your device. You can disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and it still works.
Can I convert several HEIC files to PDF at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many files as you like; they are converted one after another and each gets its own download button.
How do I open a PDF file?
PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer. PDF is common for documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files.
Is this HEIC to PDF converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many files you convert. The site is paid for by advertising, and because conversions run on your device there is no server cost per file.
Can I convert HEIC to PDF on my phone?
Yes. The converter works in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. Converted files are saved to the Downloads folder.