HEIC to PNG converter: a lossless copy of iPhone photos
Turn iPhone HEIC photos into PNG when you need a copy with no further compression, for editing or for an app that specifically asks for PNG. Batch convert in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Drop images here, or choose files
JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, GIF, BMP, AVIF. Up to 50 files at a time. Nothing is uploaded.
Files never leave your device. Check the network tab if you like.
Why PNG instead of the usual JPG
Most people converting HEIC photos just want JPG, and that is the right choice for sharing, printing and everyday storage. PNG makes sense in a narrower case: when the photo is going to be edited further, cropped, layered, or annotated, and you want the version you start from to carry no additional compression damage. HEIC itself is already a lossy format, so converting it to another lossy format like JPG stacks a second round of loss on top of the first. Converting to PNG instead saves exactly the pixels the decoder produced, with nothing thrown away in the save step, which matters if you are about to run several more edits on top.
If you only need to look at the photo, share it, or attach it somewhere, none of this matters and JPG remains the simpler, smaller choice; the PNG path is specifically for the smaller set of photos that are about to go through more processing.
PNG does not add transparency
It is worth being clear about what PNG does and does not do here: an iPhone camera photo is a fully opaque picture, and converting it to PNG does not create a transparent background or cut anything out. PNG's usual selling point, transparency, is not the reason to use it for a HEIC photo; losslessness is. If you actually need a subject cut out onto a transparent background, that requires a separate background-removal step this tool does not perform.
Expect a much larger file than the HEIC
HEIC exists specifically to store a photo in about half the space of JPG, so converting to lossless PNG goes the opposite direction: a 3–4 MB HEIC photo commonly becomes a 20–40 MB PNG, sometimes more for a busy scene with fine texture like grass or fabric. That is expected, not a bug, but it means PNG is a poor choice for everyday sharing, texting or uploading a whole camera roll; use this site's HEIC to JPG converter for that instead, and save PNG for the specific photos you are about to edit.
Batch-converting an entire camera roll to PNG for a one-off backup is also worth thinking twice about for the same reason: a thousand HEIC photos might total 4 GB, while the same thousand as PNG can easily pass 30 GB, which is a lot to store or move for the sake of a backup that JPG would serve just as well.
| Original HEIC (12 MP) | As JPG (quality 88) | As PNG (lossless) |
|---|---|---|
| ≈3–4 MB | ≈2–4 MB | ≈20–40 MB |
Orientation and Live Photos
iPhones do not physically rotate the pixels when you take a portrait photo; instead they store an orientation flag and rely on the viewing app to rotate the image on display. This converter reads that flag before drawing the photo, so a portrait shot comes out right-side up as a PNG rather than sideways, which is a common problem with tools that copy the raw pixel data without checking orientation first. A Live Photo, which pairs a still HEIC with a few seconds of motion and sound, converts to a single still frame; the video portion is a separate file on the phone and is not part of this conversion.
When the PNG round-trip is worth it
A designer or photographer pulling an iPhone photo into Photoshop, GIMP or Affinity Photo for retouching benefits from starting with an untouched PNG rather than a JPG that already has compression artifacts baked in before the first edit. The same logic applies to screenshotting or annotating a photo where crisp overlay text needs a clean base, or to an app or print workflow that explicitly asks for PNG rather than accepting JPG.
It is also the right choice when a photo will be compressed multiple times on its way to a final destination, for example converted once for an internal review, edited again, and exported a final time for publishing. Each of those steps being lossy JPG compounds the damage, while starting and staying in PNG through the editing stage means only the very last export loses anything.
Getting HEIC off your iPhone without converting every time
If you find yourself converting the same photos repeatedly, it may be worth changing the source: Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible makes the iPhone shoot JPG directly, at the cost of roughly double the storage per photo. That does not help when you specifically want a lossless PNG for editing, but it removes the HEIC step for everything else. Windows can also read HEIC directly after installing Microsoft's free HEIF codec from the Store, though that only helps with viewing, not with producing a PNG.
For the occasional single photo that needs a lossless copy, converting on this page is faster than installing a codec or a desktop app just for one file, and it works the same way on a Windows PC, a Mac or the iPhone itself without anything to set up first.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the PNG so much bigger than the original HEIC?
- HEIC is a lossy format designed to be small; PNG is lossless and stores every pixel exactly, so it is normal for the PNG to be five to ten times larger.
- Will the PNG have a transparent background?
- No. An iPhone photo is fully opaque, and converting to PNG does not remove or cut out anything. Transparency requires a separate background-removal tool.
- Does this lose quality compared to the HEIC?
- No, PNG is lossless, so it keeps every pixel the decoder produced from the HEIC file without further compression.
- Should I use PNG or JPG for my iPhone photos?
- JPG for sharing, texting, printing and everyday storage. PNG only when you need a lossless copy before further editing, since it produces much larger files.
- Can I convert HEIC to PNG on my iPhone directly?
- Yes. Open this page in Safari on your iPhone, choose photos from your library, and save the PNG results to Files or share them.
Content last reviewed: 2026-09-03