What happens when you convert HEIF to PDF
- The HEIF is placed on a PDF page the same size as the image, stored losslessly.
- Browsers other than Safari cannot read HEIF, so a decoder of about 1.3 MB is fetched when you press Convert.
How to convert HEIF to PDF online
- Press "Choose HEIF 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 HEIF to PDF?
HEIF files usually come from photos from Samsung, Sony and other Android cameras that support it. 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, HEIF 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 HEIF; Chrome, Edge and Firefox cannot, while PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer.
How to convert HEIF to PDF on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
On Windows
Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your HEIF 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 HEIF 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 HEIF 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 HEIF files in future, go to Settings, Camera, Formats and choose Most Compatible.
On Android
Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose HEIF 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 HEIF 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 HEIF 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.
HEIF vs PDF: the differences
| HEIF | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | High Efficiency Image File Format | Portable Document Format |
| Type | image | document |
| Created by | the Moving Picture Experts Group | Adobe |
| First released | 2015 | 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 from Samsung, Sony and other Android cameras that support it | documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files |
| MIME type | image/heif | application/pdf |
About HEIF and PDF files
What is a HEIF file?
HEIF is the container standard and HEIC is the name Apple gives files that use it with HEVC compression. Android phones that shoot in this format usually label the file .heif.
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.
HEIF 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 HEIF to PDF from the command line
If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts HEIF to PDF in one line:
magick input.heif output.pdfTo convert every HEIF in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format pdf *.heif. Your ImageMagick build needs HEIC support (libheif), which the official installers include. The converter on this page does the same job without installing anything.
HEIF to PDF converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting HEIF to PDF?
No further quality is lost, because PDF is written losslessly. Detail the HEIF compression already removed does not come back.
Why is the PDF a different size from the HEIF?
The PDF is usually larger, because it stores every pixel without compression losses, while the HEIF was compressed lossily.
Are my HEIF 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 HEIF 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 HEIF 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 HEIF 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.