HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image File Format. It is standardized as ISO/IEC 23008-12. If you have heard of HEIC, you have already used HEIF: on iPhone, the Camera app writes a HEIF file and Finder shows the extension .heic.
A container, not a single codec
HEIF is a box. Inside it you can put different coded images. The usual iPhone still is HEVC (H.265), which is why the brand heic appears in the file’s ftyp header. Other brands you might see include heix, hevc, mif1, and msf1 (sequences). AVIF is a cousin idea (AV1 in a similar container) but it is a different filename and decoder. This site does not convert AVIF.
Because HEIF is a media container, it can hold more than one item: the primary still, thumbnails, depth, auxiliary HDR gain maps, and in Live Photos a timed video. JPEG, by contrast, is almost always one raster plus optional EXIF/XMP/ICC. When this converter says “still frame only,” it means it decodes the primary image item and ignores the motion track.
HEIF vs HEIC vs HEVC
- HEIF — container (the file structure).
- HEVC — video codec also used as a still-image codec.
- HEIC — everyday name and extension for HEVC-in-HEIF, especially from Apple.
- HEIF as
.heif— same family, often from other vendors or from tools that prefer the generic extension.
The converter on the home page accepts .heic and .heif and sniffs the ftyp brand rather than trusting the extension alone. A file renamed to .jpg is not a JPEG; a HEIC renamed to .heif still decodes if the bytes are valid.
Why the web still uses JPEG
HEIF needs a decoder with HEVC, and HEVC is encumbered with patents in a way that made browser vendors cautious. Safari is the outlier that displays HEIC in more places. Chrome and Firefox have not made HEIC a first-class <img> type the way they did for WebP and AVIF. That is why a photographer’s portfolio should not ship HEIC to the public web, and why a form from a bank still says “JPG or PNG.”
Apple’s overview of camera formats is in the iPhone Camera guide. The HEIF standard is at ISO; you do not need it to convert a vacation album.
Privacy and metadata
EXIF in HEIF is not always in the same place as in JPEG (APP1). It is often an item in the container. This site strips it by default when it re-encodes through canvas. Enable Keep camera metadata to copy an EXIF payload into the JPEG when one can be found. Location is part of that payload on many iPhone shots.
More comparisons: HEIC vs JPG, HEIC vs JPEG. Convert at Convert HEIC to JPG.
How a decoder finds the still
libheif (the WASM this site lazy-loads) opens the HEIF context, lists image items, and displays the primary image. That primary item is what iPhone Photos shows as the still. Derived images and thumbnails are extra items; we do not export them as separate JPEGs. If a file has no primary image, the row fails as unsupported rather than guessing.
Sequence brands (msf1, hevc) can store more than one timed image. This tool still takes the primary still. It will not explode a burst container into 20 JPEGs. If you shot a burst, you likely have 20 files already.
You do not need to read the ISO spec to convert a photo. You do need to know that “HEIF” on a box, “HEIC” in Finder, and “High Efficiency” in Camera settings are the same family. Switch Camera to Most Compatible only if every future shot must be JPEG; it will not rewrite the library you already took.
Last reviewed 2026-09-13.