- Create a Pages document with two empty pages
- Export this document as PDF
- Open this PDF with Preview and export it as HEIC
Note that resulting file is simply .heic
, not .heics
, despite it contains multiple images. Why is that?
Note that resulting file is simply .heic
, not .heics
, despite it contains multiple images. Why is that?
I had never heard of a .heics file extension before. The internet says it is for an âimage sequenceâ which sounds more involved than just multiple images in a file.
I stay away from Appleâs proprietary image formats. They are becoming more widely supported but I still prefer JPEG (.jpg) for best compatibility.
There is an article by Adobe in which it is said that âeach HEIC file uses the .heic
or .heics
extension, depending on the number of images inside.â I donât know what is the correct way to interpret these words.
Is it just simply singular vs plural? .heic is 1 image, .heics is 2 or more? Seems silly to do that, but maybe thatâs it.
BTW, it is not a proprietary Apple file format, it is an ISO standard:
That is what it means:
Files with extensions that end with an âsâ indicate an image sequence, somewhat similar to animated GIF files.
Just worth noting that Apple is not using proprietary formats for images or videos. They are open standard formats from ISO - Apple is just an early adopter.
I understand that. And adoption by others has been coming. And with Apple pushing it, HEIC may become ubiquitous ⌠some day. My point is that JPEG and TIFF are still the ones to beat once one has to deal with a computer, device, printer, website, or service bureau that is outside the Apple ecosystem.
Oh for sure - and macOS and iOS generally do a great job of on demand conversion for pretty much any purpose. I havent run into a compatibility issue in forever because any time you share an image even if you shot in HEIC or HEIF itâs a JPG/whatever the videos are thatâs received on the other end. I upload images to archaic forums, squarespace, reddit, discord, instagram, the service I had print my business cards and gods know what else seamlessly while shooting exclusively in HEIF for years. When you export from Photos on macOS it defaults to a .jpg even if your original is HEIF (to be fair it does the same if the original is ProRAW, too).
I think the only time youâre likely to have an issue these days is if youâre using a Mac or iOS device that is too old to have support.
The only time I had to worry about it in recent memory was installing the Microsoft HEIF patch on Windows 11 for iCloud Photos to be accessible after syncing. Even thatâs a Microsoft Store download at this point (though I really canât imagine why they havenât made it a standard thing through a Windows update yet).