HEIC to PDF
iPhone photos into a document everything can open, one per page, with no stop at JPG on the way and no Mac required.
- No uploads
- No sign-up
- No file limit
- No watermark
nothing was uploaded
Why your photos are HEIC in the first place
Since iOS 11, an iPhone saves photos as HEIC unless it has been told otherwise, and it does so for a good reason: the same picture takes about half the space a JPG would. The problem is everything that is not an Apple device. Windows needs an extension, plenty of Android phones will not show one, and a great many upload forms, print shops and insurance portals reject the file without explaining why.
A PDF is one of the safest things to turn them into, because a PDF opens everywhere: on a phone, in a browser, on a ten-year-old work laptop, in an email client. For a receipt, a document you photographed, an insurance claim or a set of photos somebody has to look through in order, it is usually a better answer than a folder of JPGs.
Decoded here, not somewhere else
HEIC is a modern format and browsers still cannot read it, so something has to. That something is libheif, an open-source decoder compiled to WebAssembly, served from getpng.app and fetched once (about 2 MB) the first time a HEIC photo arrives. It then runs inside your tab. Every other free HEIC converter sends your photo to a server to be decoded, which is a strange thing to do with a folder of personal photographs, and it is why so many of them cap you at ten files.
There is no cap here, and no account. Photos are decoded one at a time so the tab keeps answering while a large batch works through.
The right way up, and nothing extra
iPhone photos are written in whatever way the sensor happened to be facing, with a tag that says how far to turn them. That tag is read and the page is turned to match, so a portrait photo is a portrait page. You can turn any page yourself as well, a quarter at a time, before saving.
What does not go into the document is the rest of the EXIF: the iPhone model, the lens, the second the photo was taken, and the coordinates it was taken at. Your original photos on the phone or the disk are untouched; if you want those cleaned before you send them anywhere, the metadata remover reads and strips them without re-encoding the picture.
If you want images rather than a document
HEIC to JPG gives small files for sharing and uploading, and HEIC to PNG gives lossless ones for editing. For a document made of mixed formats, image to PDF takes them all at once.
Guides that go further
Part of the formats behind your photos. What each format is, when to use it, and what to do when a file will not open.
- What is a HEIC file, and how do you open one on Windows?What a HEIC file is, why your iPhone saves photos that way, and how to open HEIC files on Windows, Mac, Android and the web, or stop your iPhone making them.
- HEIC vs JPG vs PNG: which should your photos be?HEIC vs JPG vs PNG compared on file size, quality, compatibility, transparency and editing, with a plain answer for keeping, sharing and editing photos.
- How to remove the background from an image or picture on iPhoneRemove the background from an image or picture on iPhone with Photos or Preview, save a transparent PNG, and know where the built-in cutout falls short.
- Photo file formats: HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and more, explainedPhoto file formats compared: which keep transparency, which every app opens, and what to turn a HEIC, AVIF, WebP or JFIF into before you edit or share it.
Questions
How do I turn iPhone photos into a PDF?
Drop the HEIC files straight onto this page. They are decoded in your browser, laid out one per page in the order you choose, and saved as a PDF. There is no need to convert them to JPG first and no need for a Mac.
What is a HEIC file, and why will nothing open it?
It is the format an iPhone saves photos in by default: the same picture as a JPG at about half the size. Apple's devices read it everywhere, and Windows, older Android phones and plenty of websites still do not, which is why a photo from an iPhone so often arrives as a file nobody can open. A PDF is one of the safest things to turn it into, because everything opens a PDF.
Is the photo uploaded to be decoded?
No. HEIC is decoded here by libheif, an open-source decoder compiled to WebAssembly and served from this site, fetched once (about 2 MB) the first time a HEIC photo arrives and then kept. Your photo is read by code running in your tab, not by a server.
Does it lose quality?
A HEIC photo has to be decoded, because the PDF format cannot hold HEIC directly. After that you choose: Best stores the pixels exactly, Auto and Smallest store them as JPEG, which is what any HEIC-to-PDF conversion anywhere does. Best is the one to use if the document is going to be printed or archived.
Can I mix iPhone photos with other pictures?
Yes. HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, GIF and BMP can go into the same document, in any order, one page each.
Will the photos be the right way up?
Yes. iPhone photos carry a tag saying which way the phone was held, and it is read and applied to the page. You can also turn any page yourself before saving.
Does it keep the GPS location from my iPhone photos?
No. What goes into the document is the picture and its size, not the EXIF block, so the location, the date and the device do not travel with the PDF. Your original photos on the device are untouched; if you want those cleaned as well, the metadata remover on this site does it without re-encoding them.
Is there a limit on how many photos?
No. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no quota. A very large batch is limited only by your device's memory, and files are decoded one at a time so the tab keeps responding.
Your files never leave this device
Most online converters upload every file to a server, convert it there and keep it for a while. Here your browser decodes and encodes the picture itself, so there is nowhere for the file to go. You can check it: load this page, switch the browser to offline, and convert a file. How to check a site is not uploading your photos.