PNG or JPG for a HEIC photo?
Both open where HEIC doesn’t: Windows, Android, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and upload forms that reject .heic. PNG is lossless, so the decoded image lands in the file exactly and stays that way however often you re-save it. JPG trades a little detail for a much smaller file. For everyday sharing, HEIC to JPG is usually the better fit; PNG is for the jobs below.
| Compared | PNG | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy (quality 50–100) |
| Size of a converted photo | Several times larger than the HEIC or a JPG | Larger than the HEIC, far smaller than PNG |
| Re-saving after edits | No added loss | Each save loses a little more |
| Text and sharp edges | Stay crisp | Can pick up faint smudges |
| Photo info (EXIF) | Kept, in the newer eXIf chunk | Kept, read by almost every app |
Where lossless output earns its file size
Editing pipelines
If a photo is headed into an editor for retouching, compositing or a print layout, start from PNG. A JPG loses a bit of detail every time it’s saved, and the losses stack up over a long session. With a PNG master you can save as often as you like and export a JPG once, at the end.
An archive copy that won’t degrade
PNG makes a sensible lossless archive copy. Just be clear about its limits: your iPhone already compressed the photo when it saved the HEIC, so PNG preserves the decoded image exactly but can’t restore detail that was never stored. Keep the original HEIC files too.
Graphics, text and line art
Text-heavy images often come from the camera: a whiteboard, a slide shot from the back of a room, a page of notes, or a screen capture someone sent you as HEIC. JPG tends to smudge lettering and sharp lines; PNG keeps them clean for cropping, annotating or enlarging. (Transparency, PNG’s other strength, doesn’t apply here: iPhone camera photos have no transparent areas.)
Converting HEIC to PNG, step by step
- Drop HEIC files onto the converter, add a folder (subfolders included), or paste an image from the clipboard.
- Keep the original size for editing or archiving; choose 2560 or 1920 px only if you need smaller files.
- Choose whether to keep photo info, remove just the GPS location, or drop all EXIF.
- Convert, then save each PNG or use Download all (ZIP).
Each batch converts up to 500 files, with no sign-up or watermark. IMG_0420.HEIC becomes IMG_0420.png; duplicate names get “ (2)” added. A Live Photo’s .MOV is skipped and only the still is converted.
How much bigger PNG files get
Lossless compression works well on flat colors and crisp graphics, but a camera photo is full of fine texture and sensor noise that can’t be squeezed without discarding information. A PNG of a 12 MP iPhone photo is typically several times larger than the HEIC it came from, and several times larger than a good JPG of the same picture.
- A big batch can fill a lot of disk space; check you have room first.
- The ZIP won’t shrink them: entries are stored without recompression, and PNG data barely compresses further anyway.
- Full-size PNG photos often exceed email and upload limits.
Resizing to a 2560 or 1920 px long edge cuts the size considerably while staying lossless at the new size.
Photo info, color profile and the eXIf caveat
By default pd00 copies the photo’s EXIF data (date taken, camera and lens, exposure settings and GPS location) into the PNG’s standard eXIf chunk. That chunk arrived in the PNG specification long after EXIF became universal in JPG, so some older viewers and editors ignore it. If a program shows no date for your PNG, the data is usually still there; the program just isn’t reading it.
The orientation tag is set to “normal” because the pixels are already upright. Tick Remove GPS location to share without coordinates, or untick Keep photo info to strip all EXIF.
iPhones capture in the wide-gamut Display P3 color space, and pd00 embeds the photo’s own ICC profile in the PNG so color-managed apps show it as shot; software that ignores profiles may show slightly duller colors. HDR photos are converted to standard dynamic range.
When PNG is the wrong call
- You’re emailing photos or uploading them to a website: JPG is smaller and universally read.
- You want all the photos in one document: use HEIC to PDF.
- Storage is tight, or the photos only live on Apple devices, which display HEIC natively.
Other limits: 500 files per batch, Live Photo motion isn’t converted, and you need a recent Chrome, Edge or Firefox, or Safari 16.4 or later.
Converted locally, never uploaded
The HEIC decoder is libheif compiled to WebAssembly (about 1.4 MB, downloaded once and cached). Decoding and PNG encoding both happen in your browser tab. The page’s Content-Security-Policy only allows connections to pd00.com and a cookieless visit counter that receives page views, not photos, so the browser blocks any other destination. Once everything has loaded, you can go offline and keep converting. See how to verify this in DevTools.