Convert HEIC to PDF
Drop in the photos your iPhone saved as HEIC, put them in order, and download one PDF. They are decoded in this tab, so they are never uploaded.
The pages appear here once you add pictures.
How to use it#
- Drop your HEIC or HEIF photos into the box above. Add more at any time.
- Wait a moment while they are read. The first one takes longest.
- Move them into order, then choose a page size and a margin.
- The PDF is made as you go, so press Download PDF to save it.
From iPhone photo to PDF in one step#
An iPhone saves photos as HEIC unless told otherwise, and the forms that ask for a scanned document almost always want a PDF. The usual route is two conversions, HEIC to JPG and then JPG to PDF. Here the photos go straight in: drop the HEIC files and the PDF comes out the other end.
You can mix formats in one list, so a HEIC from your phone and a JPG someone emailed you can sit side by side in the same document, in whatever order you set.
What happens to each photo#
A PDF cannot hold a HEIC picture, so each photo is decoded in this tab and written into the document as a high quality JPEG. That is a re-encode, and it costs a little detail, though not enough to see on a page.
It also costs space. HEIC packs a photo into about half the bytes a JPEG needs, so the PDF is usually around twice the size of the HEIC files that went in. If it has to fit an upload limit, make the photos smaller first: turn them into JPGs with the HEIC to JPG converter, shrink those with compress to size, and make the PDF from the results.
Why the first photo takes a few seconds#
Most browsers cannot read HEIC on their own, so the page fetches a decoder, about a megabyte of WebAssembly, the first time you drop one in. It stays in memory for the rest of the batch, and each photo after that takes a couple of seconds for a 12 megapixel picture on a typical laptop.
Safari can usually open HEIC itself, and then the decoder is never fetched at all. Either way, the only download is the decoder coming to your browser. Your photos are never sent anywhere.
What does not come across#
Only the picture goes into the PDF. The date, the location, and the camera details stored inside a HEIC are left behind, which is worth knowing both ways: a photo of a document does not carry your home address into the file you send, and the PDF cannot tell anyone when the photo was taken.
A HEIC can also hold more than one image, such as the depth map a Portrait mode photo keeps beside the picture. Only the main picture becomes a page, which is the one you see when you open the photo. The moving part of a Live Photo is a separate video file, and it stays behind too.
Frequently asked questions#
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
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No. The decoding and the PDF both happen inside this tab, on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server.
Can I do this on my iPhone?
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Yes. The page works in Safari on the phone: tap the box and choose photos from your library. Sometimes iOS hands the page a JPEG copy of each photo rather than the HEIC, which makes no difference to the PDF.
Can I turn HEIC into PDF on Windows?
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Yes. Windows often cannot open a HEIC photo until an extra extension is installed from the Microsoft Store, but this page carries its own decoder, so nothing needs installing. Copy the photos from your iPhone, drop them here in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox, and the PDF comes out the same as it would on a Mac.
Does it accept HEIF files as well?
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Yes. HEIF is the container, and HEIC is the name for one holding HEVC compressed pictures, which is what an iPhone and many Android phones write. Files ending in .heif and .heic are both accepted.
Why is the PDF bigger than my photos?
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Because a PDF has to store each photo as a JPEG, and a JPEG needs about twice the bytes of a HEIC for the same picture. The photos lose nothing you would notice, but the file grows.
Do I need the photos as JPGs as well?
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Only if you want them outside the PDF. The HEIC to JPG converter turns a batch into JPEGs you can open anywhere, with a quality setting.
Can I stop my iPhone saving HEIC?
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Yes. In Settings, under Camera, then Formats, choosing Most Compatible makes the camera save JPEG instead. Photos already taken stay as HEIC, and this page still takes them.