HEIC is a high-efficiency image file format that is considered an improvement over the most commonly used JPG image format. HEIC images take up about half the storage of standard JPG images, with the same image quality.
Apple adopted the HEIC format in iOS 11 (2017). Since then, when you transfer your iPhone or iPad images to your desktop, they will have the .heic file extension.
And since many operating systems and popular apps haven’t adopted the HEIC format as of 2020, it causes many users headaches.
Fortunately, there are several ways to convert HEIC to JPG relatively quickly. The two best methods I’ve found (on macOS) are:
- Automator: Mac’s built-in productivity app which you can use to quickly create a HEIC to JPEG Quick Action conversion tool.
- Preview: Mac’s built-in image previewing tool which can also convert HEIC to JPG.
The Automator method takes a minute or so to set up, but from there on converting HEIC to JPG will take a couple of seconds.
The Preview method requires no initial setup but requires more total steps to get from HEIC to JPG.
