File Format - HEIC

Computer frustration

Since 2017 HEIC files have been the standard photo image format for Apple users.

When you take a photo on your iPhone or iPad, the image, or images, in the case of live photos, are, by default, saved as an HEIC file. HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. This saves images in higher quality than JPEG while also using less space thanks to advanced compressive technology. This space-saving file format takes up half the space of other image file formats, like JPEGs.

On the face of it. this file size reduction is a good thing. Unfortunately the heic format is not a universal standard and cannot be read by many applications outside the Apple environment. As we have users working in Windows, Android, Google and Android systems within Wadswick Green Photography Club this causes compatibility problems. Google Photos, for example, can read heic files but cannot export them into the Adobe ecosystem we use for our portfolio website.

Club members are therefore requested to save their files in a universally compatible format such as .jpg. This can be done easily within Settings on your Apple device.

Navigate to Settings >> Camera >> Formats >> Camera Capture and set the option to “Most Compatible”.

This setting should be retained for your future use of the camera but can be overwritten by software upgrades which return it to using heic format by default. This is therefore a setting that you need to check from time to time.