Convert HEIC to PDF
Free online converter for HEIC files. Fixed-layout format for sharing and printing. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
Drag and drop your files
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Upload a HEIC file to convert it to PDF. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About HEIC and PDF
HEIC .heic
Apple's default photo format since iOS 11, storing HEVC-compressed images in a HEIF container. It is roughly half the size of an equivalent JPEG.
Good for
- About half the size of JPEG at similar quality
- Keeps transparency, depth maps and image sequences
- 10-bit colour, so smoother gradients than JPEG
Trade-offs
- Poor support outside Apple platforms — this is the usual reason to convert
- Patent-encumbered, which is why support is uneven
- Lossy, so quality does not come back
image/heic
PDF .pdf
A fixed-layout page format. A PDF describes exactly where every glyph and line sits, so it looks identical everywhere — which is precisely what makes it awkward to edit.
Good for
- Identical layout on every device, screen and printer
- Embeds its own fonts, so nothing reflows or substitutes
- The accepted format for contracts, invoices and forms
Trade-offs
- Not built for editing — text is positioned, not flowing
- A scanned PDF is just images until text recognition is run
- Reflows badly on small screens
application/pdf
HEIC and PDF side by side
| HEIC | ||
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy (HEVC) | Mixed — per object |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes |
| Animation | Yes — Live Photos and bursts | No |
| Typically used for | iPhone and iPad camera output | Contracts, invoices, forms, anything printed |
What changes when you convert HEIC to PDF
The image is placed, not read
Your HEIC is embedded on a PDF page as a picture. Any text visible in the image stays part of the picture and is not searchable. To make it selectable, run text recognition on the resulting PDF afterwards.
Centred on a page, never enlarged
The image is placed on an A4 page by default with a 10 mm margin, scaled down to fit and centred. It is never scaled up: a small HEIC stays its own size in the middle of the page rather than being stretched to fill it, because upscaling would only make it blurry. Page size, orientation and margin are all adjustable before you convert.
The PDF can be larger than the image
The picture is embedded losslessly, so nothing is degraded on the way in — but a HEIC that was already efficiently compressed does not stay that size once it is stored this way, and the PDF wrapper adds its own overhead on top. Converting an image to PDF is a way of making it printable and easy to send, not a way of making it smaller.
Other HEIC conversions
Other ways to get PDF
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