HEIC to PNG Converter

Encoding: the HEIC uses lossy HEVC (H.265) intra coding, on iPhones as a grid of 512×512 tiles; PNG uses lossless DEFLATE with a prediction filter chosen per row, and the download is a lossless 8-bit PNG with full alpha.

Bit depth: 8 or 10 bits per channel in the HEIC; PNG allows 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bits per channel, and the PNG written here has 8 bits per channel. 10-bit HEIC photos are reduced to 8 bits per channel.

Colour: YCbCr, usually tagged Display P3 on iPhones in the HEIC; PNG supports RGB, greyscale, or an indexed palette of up to 256 colours, written here as 8-bit sRGB.

Transparency: the HEIC stores it as an auxiliary image item, rarely used by cameras; the PNG keeps it as a full alpha channel, so edges and shadows can fade smoothly.

Other images: the HEIC can hold a thumbnail, depth map, HDR gain map and burst shots as extra items; only the main image is converted.

Metadata: the HEIC can carry EXIF, XMP and an ICC profile, stored as items; PNG can carry text chunks, an ICC profile, physical resolution and EXIF in an eXIf chunk, but nothing is copied across.

HEIC is the default photo format on iPhones and many Android phones. It is about half the size of JPEG, but Windows, many websites and older software cannot open it without converting.

A HEIC is a HEIF file (ISO base media boxes with the brand 'heic'). iPhone photos store the picture as a grid of 512×512 HEVC tiles that the decoder stitches together, with the thumbnail, depth map and HDR gain map as further items.

HEIC files usually come from iPhones and iPads since iOS 11, and many recent Android phones.

PNG stores pixels losslessly with full alpha transparency. It is ideal for screenshots, logos, UI and anything with sharp edges, but photos saved as PNG are several times larger than JPEG.

A PNG opens with an 8-byte signature and is a chain of chunks, each with its own CRC: IHDR (size, depth, colour type), optional PLTE and tRNS for palettes, one or more IDAT chunks with the compressed rows, and IEND.

PNG is the better choice for screenshots, logos, graphics and anything that needs transparency, while HEIC suits storing photos on Apple devices.

PNG strengths: Lossless: no quality loss, ever; Full transparency with smooth edges; Perfect for text, screenshots and graphics. Drawbacks to weigh: Large files for photographs; No standard animation (that is APNG).