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iOS 11 will launch officially tomorrow—it’s been in beta for months—and one of the most relevant photo-centric features coming to Apple’s new mobile OS is the introduction of a high efficiency image file format (HEIF) called HEIC. This format should, in theory, make images smaller without sacrificing quality, in addition to a bunch of other useful features.
There’s just one problem: Windows users can’t natively view HEIC files on their computers. Enter JPEGmini creator Beamr and their new HEIC to JPEG converter.
Beamr says they created the Web tool in response to user feedback—ever since the new format was announced people have been asking for a way to convert HEIC to JPEG. Well, now they can by simply following this link and uploading up to 30 photos at a time. And since this is made by the same folks behind JPEGmini, HEIC images converted using the tool are then further optimized using the JPEGmini technology to spit out more manageable JPEGs.
We’re not sure for how long this tool will be needed. There are a lot of advantages to the HEIC format—the ability to store single images or sequences, the ability to store audio/text alongside the image, the ability to store image editing operations, and both lossy and lossless compression, to name a few—so it would make sense for the format to gain wide-spread integration quickly.
But until then, if you’re upgrading to iOS 11 tomorrow and need/want a way to convert those images to JPEGs, there’s on option waiting for you.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)