About heic to jpg
iPhones save photos as HEIC by default because the format keeps good quality at a small file size. Many websites, forms and older devices cannot open HEIC, so converting to JPG makes the photo usable everywhere.
What changes in the conversion
HEIC and JPG both compress photos, but in different ways. Converting decodes the HEIC image and saves it again as JPG, which is a one-time recompression. At a high quality setting the difference is hard to see, though the JPG file is often larger than the HEIC original.
Tips
- On an iPhone you can avoid HEIC by choosing Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats. New photos are then saved as JPG.
- You can convert many photos in one go and download them together.
- Keep the original HEIC files if you may edit them later, since they hold the best quality.
