PDF to HEIF Converter

Convert PDF to HEIF: What This Tutorial Covers

This walk-through turns the pages of a PDF into HEIF images — the High Efficiency Image File Format that iPhones and recent Macs use by default. It is for anyone who wants PDF pages as compact, high-quality stills for an Apple-family photo library or app, and it is honest about the two catches: rasterizing a PDF flattens its selectable text into pixels, and HEIF still opens cleanly only on Apple devices, Windows 11 with the right extension, and Safari.

How to Convert PDF to HEIF

1. Upload Your PDF File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files". Batch upload is supported — drop several PDFs and each is rasterized independently.
2. Set Conversion Quality (DPI): This is the setting that matters most. It defaults to 300 DPI (print quality). Drop to 150 DPI for screen and phone viewing, 72-96 DPI for thumbnails, or raise to 600 DPI for archival scans. File size grows roughly with the square of DPI, so 300 DPI is about four times the size of 150 DPI.
3. Tune Image Compression, Transparency, and Resolution (Optional): Set the Image Compression Quality Preset to Very High (the default) for photos and detailed pages, or Medium to shrink files when only legibility matters. Pick an Image Transparency color (White by default) to fill the page background, and use Image Resolution to scale the rendered page up or down independently of DPI.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Each PDF page becomes its own HEIF image, downloadable individually or as a ZIP. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: Choosing Quality That Opens and Looks Right

HEIF's whole reason to exist is efficiency: it stores still images with HEVC (H.265) coding, the same family of compression Apple ships by default, and at equal visual quality a HEVC-coded HEIF is typically much smaller than the same image as JPEG — often around half the size. That means you can keep DPI high without the file penalty you'd pay in JPEG.

Match the settings to where the image will live:

• For an iPhone or Mac photo library: 200-300 DPI at Very High preset. The output slots straight into Photos and stays small.
• For email, chat, or a slide: 150 DPI is sharp on any screen. Below 150 DPI, fine text starts to soften because the page is being sampled at fewer pixels.
• For an archival or print master: 600 DPI. HEIF's efficiency keeps even a 600 DPI page far smaller than the JPEG equivalent.
• For a flat white page background: leave Image Transparency on White. HEIF can carry an alpha channel, but a rasterized PDF page is usually opaque, so the background color is what you'll see.

If you only need to make the page legible on a phone and want the smallest possible file, drop to 150 DPI and set the Quality Preset to Medium — that combination cuts size hard while keeping body text readable.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "The HEIF file won't open on Windows" — Windows 11 needs the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store, and HEVC-coded HEIC also needs an HEVC video extension to decode. Without both, File Explorer and Photos show a blank or error. If you can't install extensions, convert to PDF to JPG instead, which opens everywhere.
• "The text in my HEIF isn't selectable" — Expected. Rasterizing turns the page into a flat pixel grid, so the text layer is gone. Keep the original PDF for searchable text, or convert to PDF to JPG and run OCR — HEIF carries no text either way.
• "Chrome / Firefox / Edge shows a broken image" — Among browsers, only Safari renders HEIC inline (from Safari 17). For a web page, convert the result with HEIF to JPG or use AVIF/WebP, which every modern browser supports.
• "The page looks blurry" — Either the source PDF was a low-resolution scan (conversion can't add detail that isn't there) or DPI is too low. Raise from 72 to 150 or 300 DPI.
• "The HEIF is bigger than I expected" — DPI scales size by its square. A 600 DPI letter page is roughly four times the pixels of 300 DPI; drop the DPI or the Quality Preset to shrink it.

When This Doesn't Work

If the PDF is password-protected or rights-restricted, it can't be rasterized until it's unlocked in the app that created it. Scanned PDFs convert at whatever resolution they were scanned — pushing DPI above the scan's native value upscales pixels without recovering detail. And if your goal is to send the page to a Windows user, an Android phone, or a web page, HEIF is the wrong target: its native support is essentially Apple plus Windows-with-extensions plus Safari, so reach for PDF to JPG or PDF to PNG instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the text in my PDF still be selectable after converting to HEIF?

No. HEIF is an image format, so converting rasterizes each page into a flat pixel grid — the text becomes part of the picture and can no longer be selected, copied, or searched. If you need a searchable copy, keep the original PDF (it already has a text layer unless it was a scan). HEIF carries no text layer, so the same is true of PDF to JPG and any other PDF-to-image conversion.

What can actually open a HEIF file?

Native support is mostly Apple: macOS High Sierra and later, and iOS 11 and later, per Apple's own documentation. Windows 11 can view HEIF after installing the HEIF Image Extensions (and an HEVC extension for HEIC) from the Microsoft Store. In browsers, only Safari renders HEIC inline, starting with Safari 17 — Chrome, Firefox, and Edge do not support it natively, which caniuse puts at roughly 14% of global users. If your recipient isn't on Apple hardware, convert to JPG or PNG first.

What is the difference between HEIF and HEIC?

HEIF (ISO/IEC 23008-12, standardized by MPEG in 2015) is the container format. HEIC is the common case of that container holding an image encoded with HEVC (H.265); the standard mandates the .heic extension for HEVC-coded files. In everyday use the terms are used interchangeably, and the files iPhones produce are HEIC. This converter outputs the HEIF/HEIC family from your PDF pages.

Does each PDF page become a separate HEIF image?

Yes. A 10-page PDF produces 10 HEIF images, one per page, named by page index. Download them individually or grab the whole set as a ZIP. If you need one combined image, stitch the outputs in an editor; if you need them back in a single document, use Merge Image to PDF.

Why convert a PDF to HEIF instead of JPG?

Efficiency and quality headroom. HEIF stores stills with HEVC coding, so at the same visual quality the file is typically much smaller than JPEG — commonly around half the size — and it supports higher bit depth (up to 10- and 12-bit) for smoother gradients. The tradeoff is reach: JPG opens on essentially everything, while HEIF is practically limited to Apple devices, Windows 11 with extensions, and Safari. Pick HEIF when the destination is an Apple photo library; pick PDF to JPG when it has to open anywhere.

Does this work with scanned PDFs?

Yes. A scanned PDF is already a stack of images, so it is re-encoded into HEIF at the DPI you choose. Converting at the scan's native resolution (often 200 or 300 DPI) preserves its quality; setting a higher DPI just upscales the existing pixels and won't sharpen the scan. In our testing, a 300 DPI scanned letter-size page re-encoded to HEIF at the Very High preset landed noticeably smaller than the same page exported as JPG, with no visible loss of legibility.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server, and how long is it kept?

Yes — rendering a PDF into HEIF runs on our servers; rasterizing multi-page documents at print DPI is heavy work best handled server-side. Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed, and the raw and converted files are deleted automatically a few hours after conversion. There's no sign-up, no account, no watermark, and files are never shared or made public.