Secure server conversion
HEIC to PDF Converter
Turn an iPhone HEIC photo into a PDF document. This exists for one situation more than any other: you photographed a form, a receipt or a contract with your phone, and the place you need to send it will only take a PDF.
Drag and drop your HEIC images here
Add several at once. Each file is processed and then deleted from our server.
Up to 20 MB per file Batch ready
Conversion queue
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Step by step
How to convert HEIC to PDF in 3 steps
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Add your HEIC file
Straight from the phone is fine.
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Nothing to configure
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Download your PDF
If you have several pages, use images to PDF instead and put them in order.
Format comparison
HEIC vs PDF
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container)
LossyThe format iPhones and iPads save photos in by default, using HEVC compression to keep files small.
- Much smaller than JPG at similar quality
- The default on Apple devices, so no setting is needed
- Many Windows apps, websites and upload forms cannot open it
PDF (Portable Document Format)
DocumentA fixed-layout document format that looks the same on every device and printer.
- Opens identically everywhere, and prints reliably
- Holds many images as pages of one file
- A document rather than an image, so it is awkward to edit or embed
Why your phone produces these
Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. It is a genuinely better format than JPEG — roughly half the size at the same quality — and Apple switched because storage on a phone is finite.
The cost is that almost nothing outside Apple's ecosystem opens it. Windows needs an extra codec, most web forms reject it, and plenty of business software has never heard of it. Which is why converting is such a common need despite the format being technically superior.
This conversion goes through JPEG
Worth stating plainly. A PDF can carry JPEG data untouched, which is why converting a JPEG to PDF loses nothing at all. It has no idea what HEIC is.
So your photo is decoded and re-encoded as a high-quality JPEG on the way into the document. That is one generation of lossy compression — at the quality used here it is not visible on a photograph, and it is certainly not visible on a photographed document, but it is honest to say it happens rather than to claim the conversion is lossless.
The alternative would be storing the decoded pixels losslessly, which is possible but produces a document many times larger to protect detail that is not really there: HEIC is itself a lossy format, so those perfectly-preserved pixels are already an approximation of the original scene.
Size
Expect the PDF to be larger than the HEIC — roughly a third larger in testing, sometimes more. HEIC is very efficient and JPEG is not, so some of the space HEIC saved comes back. It is still a sensibly-sized document, and far smaller than a lossless version would be.
Orientation
iPhones record which way up the phone was rather than rotating the pixels, and that rotation flag is applied here before the page is made. Your photo appears the right way up rather than on its side — a genuinely common failure with cheaper converters, and an embarrassing one when the document goes to an employer or a bank.
Quality
Quality and file size
There is no quality setting. The JPEG step uses a high fixed quality, chosen so the generation is invisible while keeping the document a reasonable size.
Photographing documents well
Most of the quality of a photographed document is decided before any conversion:
- Flat, even light. A shadow across the page is the most common reason a submitted document gets rejected as unreadable.
- Square on, not at an angle. Perspective makes text harder to read and looks careless.
- Fill the frame with the page. Detail spent on your desk is detail not spent on the text.
- Check the focus before you leave the room. A blurred photograph of a signed contract cannot be fixed afterwards.
iOS also has a proper document scanner built into the Notes and Files apps — it flattens perspective, corrects the lighting and exports a real PDF directly. For anything important it is a better route than photographing and converting.
Live Photos and bursts
A Live Photo is a still plus a short video. Only the still is used; the video is irrelevant to a document. A burst gives whichever frame the phone exported.
Depth and portrait mode
Portrait-mode photos carry depth information used to blur the background. The blur is already part of the image you see, so it appears in the PDF — but the depth data itself is dropped, which means the effect can no longer be adjusted or removed afterwards.
The situation this is for
Someone needs a document from you. You do not have a scanner, so you photograph it with your
phone. The upload form says "PDF only". Your phone gave you a .heic.
That chain — no scanner, iPhone default, PDF-only form — is why this page exists. It is one of the most common small frustrations in modern paperwork.
Multiple pages
Most real documents are more than one page, and this tool makes one PDF per photo. For a proper multi-page document use images to PDF: add all the photos, drag them into page order, and get a single file with one page each. It accepts HEIC alongside everything else.
Sending five separate PDFs when one was expected is the kind of thing that gets a submission returned.
Your text will not be searchable
The PDF contains a photograph of a page, not text. It cannot be searched, selected or copied from, and if a system specifically requires searchable or machine-readable documents, this will not satisfy it however neat it looks.
That needs optical character recognition — a different kind of tool. Some official portals do require it, and it is better to find out here than after a rejection.
Metadata
Phone photos carry a lot: the exact time, the camera, the settings, and frequently the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken. Converting to PDF does not deliberately preserve that, but if you are sending photographs elsewhere it is worth knowing what they normally contain.
You can see exactly what any file is carrying with the metadata viewer, and strip it with remove EXIF data. For a document photographed at home and sent to a stranger, that is a reasonable habit.
What happens to your file
Browsers cannot decode HEIC or write PDF documents, so this conversion runs on our server. Your upload is deleted the moment it finishes, the result is deleted as you download it, and anything abandoned is swept automatically.
Worth saying plainly here: the photos people convert this way are usually identity documents, bank letters, contracts and medical paperwork.
Privacy
What happens to your file
This tool runs on our server, so it works the same on every phone and computer. Your file is uploaded, and this is exactly what happens to it:
- Stored outside the public web root under a random name, never under your file's name.
- Processed, with the original upload deleted immediately — whether it succeeded or failed.
- The result sits behind a signed link that only you receive, which stops working after 20 minutes, and the file is deleted the moment you download it.
- Anything never collected is deleted automatically within 30 minutes.
- The image itself is never logged or kept. If a conversion fails, we record the formats involved and the error — not the file.
- Camera metadata, including any GPS coordinates recording where a photo was taken, is removed from the result. Only the rotation needed to show the image the right way up is kept.
Questions & answers
HEIC to PDF: frequently asked questions
Is this conversion lossless?
No, and it is better to say so. PDF cannot carry HEIC, so your photo is re-encoded as a high-quality JPEG on the way in — one generation of lossy compression, invisible at this quality and certainly invisible on a photographed document. Storing the pixels losslessly instead would make a much larger document to protect detail that is not really there, since HEIC is itself lossy.
Why is the PDF bigger than my HEIC?
Because HEIC is very efficient and JPEG is not, so some of the space HEIC saved comes back — roughly a third larger in testing. It is still a sensible document size, and far smaller than a lossless version would be.
Will my photo be the right way up?
Yes. iPhones record which way the phone was held rather than rotating the pixels, and that flag is applied before the page is made. Sideways output is a common failure with cheaper converters and an embarrassing one when the document goes to an employer or a bank.
How do I make a multi-page document?
Use images-to-PDF rather than this tool: add all the photos, drag them into page order, and get one file with a page each. It accepts HEIC directly. Sending five separate PDFs when one was expected is the kind of thing that gets a submission returned.
Will the text in my photo be searchable?
No — the PDF contains a photograph of a page, not text. If a portal specifically requires searchable or machine-readable documents this will not satisfy it, however neat it looks. That needs optical character recognition, a different kind of tool.
Is there a better way to scan documents on an iPhone?
Yes, and it is worth knowing: the Notes and Files apps have a real document scanner built in. It flattens perspective, corrects lighting and exports a PDF directly. For anything important that is a better route than photographing and converting.
What happens to Live Photos?
Only the still image is used; the short video attached to it is irrelevant to a document and is dropped. Portrait-mode photos keep their background blur, since that is already part of the image, but the depth data is dropped so the effect can no longer be adjusted.
Keep going
Related image tools
HEIC & HEIF to JPG Converter
Convert HEIC and HEIF photos to JPG so any device can open them — iPhone photos and .heif files alike. Free, no account, files deleted immediately.
HEIC to PNG Converter
Convert iPhone HEIC photos to lossless PNG. Best when you plan to edit the image. Files are deleted immediately after conversion.
JPG to PDF Converter
Turn JPG photos into PDF documents. The JPEG is embedded exactly as it is, so nothing is re-compressed and no quality is lost.
Images to PDF
Combine several images into one PDF, one page each. Drag to reorder, choose A4 or fit-to-image. Nothing is re-encoded.