Why HEIC and Photoshop don’t always get along
Photoshop doesn’t ship its own HEIC decoder in every setup. It leans on what the operating system provides, so whether “Open” works depends on your OS, its installed codecs and your Photoshop version. Results vary:
- Mac: macOS has decoded HEIC since High Sierra, and Photoshop on a Mac often opens them, though behaviour can differ between versions.
- Windows: usually needs Microsoft’s HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions. Without them, expect an error or an unsupported format message.
- Shared studio machines: whatever the IT department installed, which may be nothing.
Converting first means every machine in the workflow gets a file it can open, today and in five years.
The editing-friendly defaults on this page
This page is tuned for editors rather than for sharing:
| Setting | Default here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Format | PNG | Lossless, no artefacts to amplify when you push curves |
| JPG quality (if chosen) | 95 | Archival quality, artefacts invisible |
| Metadata | Keep everything | Bridge and Lightroom can sort by date, lens and location |
| Colour profile | Display P3 embedded | Colours match the iPhone in a managed workflow |
Most of our other tools drop GPS by default. Here everything is kept because these files are usually going into your own catalogue. Remember to strip location before exporting for the web; Remove GPS from HEIC or your Photoshop export settings will do it.
Colour management tips
- When Photoshop opens a P3-tagged file, choose to use the embedded profile. Converting to your working space on open is fine too, as long as it’s deliberate.
- If your working space is sRGB and you see a warning about a profile mismatch, that’s expected; iPhone photos are wider gamut than sRGB.
- If a downstream tool ignores profiles and colours look flat, re-run the conversion with the sRGB option on.
Batching a shoot
Dropped a whole session of iPhone photos? Drop the folder here and download a ZIP of PNGs. For JPG at specific sizes, the batch HEIC converter adds resizing and presets. Heading to print instead? See Convert HEIC for printing.
Client work stays on your machine
Unreleased product shots and client photos aren’t things to upload to a random converter. Here the decode and PNG encode happen in your browser, on your hardware, and the page carries on working offline.