HEIC vs JPG
HEIC is what your iPhone shoots: about half the size of JPG at the same quality. JPG is what everything else can open. Keep HEIC on the phone, convert to JPG the moment the photo has to go anywhere near a Windows machine or a web form.
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Choose HEIC when
- Photos staying inside the Apple ecosystem.
- Saving space on the phone without losing quality.
Choose JPG when
- Sending photos to anyone who is not on an iPhone or a Mac.
- Uploading to a website, a form, or almost any older application.
- Printing, or handing files to a client.
What HEIC actually is
HEIC wraps High Efficiency Video Coding, the compression behind 4K video, around a still photograph. It is about half the size of a JPG that looks the same, and the container can hold several images at once, which is how Live Photos and depth data are stored.
This is the single most common conversion people need: a photo taken on an iPhone that no one else can open. Converting to JPG solves it, at the cost of some file size.
What JPG actually is
JPG discards detail your eye is least likely to notice, then compresses what is left. The quality setting decides how much it discards. It is the reason photographs on the web are measured in hundreds of kilobytes rather than tens of megabytes.
Re-saving a JPG repeatedly degrades it every time, because it re-encodes from the already damaged version. Edit from the original, and export to JPG once at the end.
HEIC and JPG side by side
| HEIC | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Extension | .heic | .jpg |
| Media type | image/heic | image/jpeg |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossy |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Quality setting | Not applicable | Yes |
| We can write it | Read only | Yes |
Questions
Why will Windows not open my HEIC file?
Windows needs a codec from the Microsoft Store, and even with it a lot of software still refuses. Converting to JPG sidesteps the whole problem.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
A little, because both are lossy and you are re-encoding. At high quality the difference is invisible, and the file roughly doubles in size.
Can I stop my iPhone shooting HEIC?
Yes — Settings, Camera, Formats, then "Most Compatible". You get JPG at the cost of roughly double the storage.