Will converting PNG to HEIC reduce quality?

Slightly, in the technical sense. HEIC uses lossy HEVC compression, so some fine detail is discarded and cannot be recovered. At high quality settings the difference is imperceptible at normal viewing sizes. If you need pixel-perfect archival, keep the original PNG as well.

How much smaller will the HEIC file be?

Typically 50–80% smaller than the original PNG, depending on image content and quality. Photographic content compresses best. Flat graphics, screenshots with large areas of solid colour, and images with sharp text compress less, so always check the actual output size shown on your file card before you delete the original.

Does HEIC support transparency like PNG?

The format supports an alpha channel, but whether transparency survives depends on the encoder and on the app opening the file. That is why this tool detects transparency in your PNG, shows it on a checkerboard preview, and lets you keep transparency or flatten it onto white or black. Test one converted file in your target app before batch-converting logos or graphics with transparent backgrounds.

Can Windows open HEIC files?

Windows 10 and 11 can open HEIC through the HEIF Image Extensions codec from the Microsoft Store. macOS and iOS open HEIC natively. Many web uploaders, older programs, and print shops still expect JPG or PNG, so for anything leaving the Apple ecosystem, send JPG or PNG instead — or convert back with our HEIC to PNG converter.

What is the difference between HEIC and HEIF?

HEIF is the container standard, developed by MPEG. HEIC is a HEIF file that uses HEVC (H.265) compression inside it — the variant Apple devices produce. In everyday use the two names are used interchangeably, and this page targets the HEIC spelling because that is what iPhones actually produce.

Can I convert HEIC back to PNG later?

Yes. Use our HEIC to PNG converter for the reverse trip. Note that the HEIC compression step is permanent: converting back will not restore the fine detail the first conversion discarded, which is another reason to keep the original PNG for anything important.

Does converting strip metadata and keep my files private?

Yes, on both counts here. Conversion runs in your browser, so your files are not uploaded to a server for this conversion. This tool also converts from the pixels in your browser, so EXIF data such as camera details, timestamps, and GPS location from the original is not carried into the HEIC file.

What quality setting should I use for PNG to HEIC?

For photos, 80–90 is the sweet spot: much smaller files with no visible loss at normal viewing sizes. For screenshots, text, or line art, use 90 or higher — or stay in PNG if every crisp edge matters. Lower settings buy smaller files at the cost of fine texture, so use them only when size matters more than detail.

PNG to HEIC Converter — Save Space with High-Efficiency Images

Why PNG files get so big

PNG is lossless, and lossless has a price. A PNG stores every pixel exactly, with no detail thrown away. That is why PNG is the right format for logos, interface graphics, and anything where exact pixels matter — and also why a PNG screenshot from a modern phone or a 4K display can easily run to 5–15 MB.

A photograph, by contrast, is full of subtle gradients, skin tones, foliage, and texture that the human eye does not need reproduced pixel-for-pixel. PNG still stores all of it faithfully, which is wasteful when the only goal is to keep a good-looking photo and reclaim storage. HEIC exists for exactly that gap: it keeps what you can actually see and discards fine detail you cannot, using a far more efficient codec.

That is the core decision on this page. You are not choosing a “better” format in the abstract. You are trading perfect pixels for much smaller files, and that trade is excellent for photos and screenshots you want to store, and poor for master artwork you may need to edit, print, or prove pixel-for-pixel later.

What HEIC actually is

HEIF is the container; HEIC is what Apple puts inside it. HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format, was developed by MPEG and published in 2015. HEIC is a HEIF file whose image data is compressed with HEVC, also known as H.265 — the same compression family behind 4K video. Apple made HEIC the default photo format on iPhone and iPad with iOS 11 in 2017, which is why almost every iPhone photo you meet today ends in .heic.

Because HEIF is a container rather than a single flat picture, a HEIC file can hold more than one image, along with depth information, thumbnails, and edit data. That is how features like Live Photos and Portrait depth work. For a simple PNG conversion, though, what matters is simpler: one still image, compressed with HEVC, usually at 10-bit colour on Apple devices, in a file far smaller than the PNG it came from.

For the authoritative background, see Apple’s own documentation on using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices, and Cloudinary’s HEIF format guide, which explains the container, the HEVC codec, and why browser support for HEIC remains limited.

PNG vs HEIC, honestly

The table below is the honest version, including the two rows other pages soften. Transparency in HEIC is supported in the format, but survival in practice depends on the encoder and the app. Compatibility is not a footnote: PNG opens everywhere, HEIC does not.

Property	PNG	HEIC
Compression	Lossless — perfect pixels	Lossy HEVC — smaller, tiny detail discarded
Transparency	Yes — universal and reliable	Supported, but preservation depends on encoder and app
Colour depth	Up to 48-bit	Up to 16-bit per channel; Apple typically uses 10-bit
Animation	No, APNG aside	Yes, as a sequence
Opens everywhere	Yes	Apple-native; Windows via codec; patchy elsewhere
Best for	Logos, screenshots, web graphics, exact pixels	iPhone photos, iCloud storage, Apple-only sharing

Read that table as a workflow rule, not a ranking. Convert to HEIC for storage and Apple workflows; keep a PNG or JPG copy for anything that leaves the Apple ecosystem. If you follow only one rule from this page, follow that one.

The storage math, in real numbers

Percentages are abstract until you put them next to your own library. The examples below are typical ranges, not guarantees — the actual result depends on image content and the quality you choose, and this tool shows you the real output size on each file card after conversion.

A 6 MB phone screenshot at high quality often lands around 2–3 MB as HEIC.
A 12 MB 4K screenshot at high quality often lands around 4–6 MB as HEIC.
A 900 KB flat graphic with gradients often lands around 400–550 KB as HEIC.
Two hundred 5 MB screenshots become roughly 2 MB each — about 600 MB saved without deleting a single image.

That last example is why this conversion matters most on the free 5 GB iCloud tier. You do not need to buy more storage or delete memories to make room; you need to store the same pictures more efficiently. The same logic applies to email attachments that bounce off size limits, uploads that time out on slow connections, and shared albums that are needlessly heavy to download.

One caution on the math: a PNG that is already mostly solid colour, or a tiny icon, will not shrink by 80%. HEVC cannot invent savings where there is little photographic detail to compress. If a converted file comes out barely smaller, that is the image telling you it was already efficient — not a fault in the conversion.

Transparency: test before you batch

This is the mistake that ruins batch conversions. PNG transparency is universal and reliable: a transparent logo looks transparent in browsers, design tools, and documents. HEIC also defines an alpha channel, but whether that alpha survives depends on the encoder that wrote the file and the app that opens it. Some apps show the transparency correctly; others show a black or white background, or ignore the alpha entirely.

That is why this converter does three things before you commit to a batch. First, it detects whether your PNG actually contains any transparent pixels, so you are not guessing. Second, it previews the image on a checkerboard background, so transparent areas are visible rather than hidden against white. Third, it lets you keep transparency or flatten it onto white or black, so you can choose the safest output for your destination instead of discovering the problem after converting fifty files.

Test one file first. Convert a single logo or graphic, open the HEIC file in the exact app where it will be used, and only then convert the rest. Transparency that survives in Apple Photos may not survive in a Windows viewer or a web uploader, and that test takes thirty seconds.

If your destination is uncertain, flattening onto white is the safe choice for documents and slides, and flattening onto black is the safe choice for dark interfaces. If your destination is Apple Photos and you have tested it, keeping transparency is fine — just do not assume it.

The HEVC trade-offs nobody mentions

HEVC is lossy, and lossy is permanent. Once fine detail is discarded, converting back to PNG does not restore it. That is why the original PNG matters: it is your master copy. Treat the HEIC file as a storage and sharing copy, not as a replacement for the original, unless you are certain you will never need those discarded pixels again.

Text and line art soften first. HEVC was designed for photographs and video, where smooth gradients and natural texture dominate. Crisp black text on white, thin lines, and hard edges are exactly the details HEVC is most likely to soften, especially at medium or low quality. Screenshots with lots of text, diagrams, and user-interface elements therefore need high quality — or should stay in PNG. A photo of a landscape can survive aggressive compression; a screenshot of a spreadsheet cannot always do so.

Converting cannot add colour depth you never had. A HEIC file can carry 10-bit or even 16-bit colour per channel, but a PNG screenshot that started life as 8-bit colour does not gain new colours by being placed in a HEIC container. The container is bigger; the information inside is the same. Likewise, converting a standard screenshot to HEIC does not make it an HDR image. Do not let a format’s maximum capability mislead you about what a particular conversion actually delivers.

Compatibility is a real cost, not a minor note. HEVC is also subject to patent licensing, which is part of why Windows needs a separate codec extension and why browser support for displaying HEIC directly remains limited. That does not make HEIC a bad format — it makes it a format with a home. Its home is Apple devices and iCloud. Outside that home, JPG and PNG are still the lingua franca, and this page links to both reverse converters for exactly that reason.

When not to convert to HEIC

Do not convert when any of these apply, even though the file would get smaller:

Print work. Print shops, publishers, and pre-press workflows overwhelmingly expect PNG, JPG, TIFF, or PDF. Send them what they asked for, not a smaller file they cannot open.
Master artwork and logos. If a file will be edited, recoloured, resized, or reused for years, keep the lossless PNG master. Every lossy round trip costs detail.
Web uploads and forms. Many uploaders, content systems, and government or school portals still reject HEIC outright. Convert to JPG or PNG for uploads unless the form explicitly accepts HEIC.
Sharing outside Apple devices. If the recipient is on Windows without the codec, on Android, or on an older system, a HEIC attachment may arrive as an unopenable file. That is a worse outcome than a larger PNG.
Text-heavy screenshots you must archive exactly. Contracts, receipts, code, and diagrams with fine print deserve lossless storage, or at minimum a high-quality HEIC plus the original PNG kept alongside it.

When in doubt, the safe pattern is simple: convert a copy for storage and Apple sharing, and keep the original PNG untouched. Storage is cheap compared with a lost master file.

Quality settings: what to choose

Quality is the one real decision in this conversion, and this tool exposes it as a slider rather than hiding it behind a single default. The slider runs from 50 to 100 and defaults to 85, which is a balanced starting point for photos. Think of the ranges this way:

90–100, High: closest to the original, still usually much smaller than PNG. Use it for text graphics, screenshots you care about, and anything you might print or crop later.
80–89, Balanced: the sweet spot for photos. Much smaller files with no visible loss at normal viewing sizes. This is where most iPhone and iCloud storage savings live.
50–79, Small: smallest files, with visible softening of fine texture. Use it only when size matters more than detail — for example, a quick share over a slow connection where the original is safely kept.

The tool also shows an estimated HEIC size before conversion and the actual size afterwards, so you are not choosing blind. If the estimate does not save enough to matter, raise the quality or skip the conversion for that file. And if you are converting a graphic rather than a photo, use the Photo / Graphic mode in the tool: graphic mode biases the estimate and the guidance toward higher quality, because crisp edges punish low quality first.

How to convert PNG to HEIC

Conversion takes four steps, and no account or signup is involved:

Add PNG files. Drag and drop PNG files onto the dropzone, or click Select Files. Each file appears as its own card with a preview, dimensions, original size, and a transparency check.
Choose quality and transparency. Set the quality slider, pick Photo or Graphic mode, and choose to keep transparency or flatten it onto white or black. Preview transparent areas on the checkerboard background.
Click Convert. Conversion runs in your browser. You can convert files one batch at a time and watch each card update with its actual HEIC size and percentage saved.
Download each HEIC file. Click the individual green Download .HEIC button on each file card. There is no ZIP file to unpack, and Save All downloads each converted file separately, one by one.

If a file fails to convert, its card shows the reason instead of producing a broken download. Do not rename a PNG file to .heic by hand — a renamed PNG is still a PNG, and most apps will reject it or display it incorrectly.

Opening HEIC on iPhone, Mac, and Windows

On iPhone and iPad, HEIC just works. It has been the native photo format since iOS 11, so Photos, Files, Mail, and Messages handle it without extra steps. If you want future photos saved as JPG instead, Apple documents the Camera Formats setting — choose Most Compatible — but photos you have already taken stay in their original format until you convert them.

On Mac, HEIC just works too. Photos and Preview open HEIC natively on macOS High Sierra and later, and you can export to JPG or PNG from either app if you need a universal copy.

On Windows, add the codec first. Windows 10 and 11 open HEIC through the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store. Once that extension is installed, Photos can open HEIC files. If you cannot install extensions — for example, on a managed work computer — convert back instead: use our HEIC to PNG converter for a lossless-shaped copy, or our HEIC to JPG converter for the most universally compatible photo file.

On Android and in browsers, support varies by device and version. Safari on Apple devices handles HEIC best; Chrome and most other browsers do not reliably display HEIC images on a web page. That is why the preview in this tool always shows your original PNG: a preview that only works in one browser would mislead everyone else about what they just converted.

Privacy and metadata

Your files are not uploaded to a server for this conversion. Conversion runs in your browser, on your device. That matters most for screenshots, which often contain private messages, account details, documents, and other information you would not want sitting on a server queue, even briefly. Closing the tab ends the session; there is nothing to delete from a server because nothing was sent to one.

Metadata is not carried into the HEIC file by this tool. Because conversion starts from the pixels in your browser, EXIF details such as camera model, timestamps, and GPS location are not copied into the output. For shared files, that is a privacy advantage: a photo stripped of location data is safer to post or send than one that still carries it. For archival work, it is a trade-off to know about: if you need the original metadata, keep the original PNG, which still has it.

The same browser-only design has one honest limit to understand. HEIC encoding in a browser depends on an encoder running locally, and encoder support varies by browser and build. If the encoder is unavailable in your browser, this tool says so on the file card instead of handing you a fake file. A tool that silently renames a PNG to .heic would be worse than a tool that tells you it cannot convert yet.

HEIC rarely lives alone in a workflow. These are the trips people actually make, in both directions:

HEIC to PNG converter — convert back for editing, printing, web uploads, and universal compatibility.
HEIC to JPG converter — convert back to the most widely accepted photo format for sharing outside Apple devices.
JPEG to HEIC converter — shrink JPG photos the same way, for the same iPhone and iCloud storage reasons.

Sources for the technical background on this page: Apple’s HEIF and HEVC documentation and Cloudinary’s HEIF format guide.