TIFF to HEIF Converter

How to Convert TIFF to HEIF Online

1. Upload Your TIFF File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select TIFF/TIF photos from your computer, scanner export folder, or RAW workflow output. Batch upload is supported — drop in an entire archival folder at once.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Default is Very High (Recommended). Choose Highest for near-lossless archival output, or step down to High, Medium, Low, or Lowest to trade visual fidelity for smaller files. HEIF's HEVC encoder typically produces files 80-90% smaller than the source TIFF at Very High quality.
3. Resize the Image (Optional): Pick a Preset Resolution (e.g., 1080P, 1440P, 2160P), scale by Resolution Percentage to keep aspect ratio, or enter a custom Width × Height in pixels. Useful when the TIFF source is a 600 DPI scan or a 100+ megapixel large-format capture.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared. Download individually or as a ZIP.

Why Convert TIFF to HEIF?

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), introduced by Aldus in 1986 and now maintained by Adobe, is the gold standard for archival imaging, professional print, and scientific capture. It stores image data losslessly with up to 16-bit-per-channel depth and supports multiple compression modes (LZW, Deflate, JPEG, ZSTD) — but the files are huge. A single 600 DPI scan of a letter-sized document can be 80-200 MB; a 100 MP medium-format TIFF can hit 600 MB. HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format, ISO/IEC 23008-12, 2015) is the modern alternative: it wraps HEVC (H.265) compression in a flexible container, keeping 10-bit color and HDR support while shrinking files dramatically.

• Storage and archive shrinkage — A 200 MB scanned TIFF typically compresses to 8-25 MB in HEIF at Very High quality. Multiply across a multi-thousand-image archive and you reclaim hundreds of gigabytes without visible quality loss on screen.
• Apple ecosystem ingestion — Apple Photos on iOS 11+ and macOS High Sierra+ treats HEIF as a first-class format, so converted scans, RAW exports, and product shots show up natively in iCloud Photo Library without a transcoding step.
• Email and cloud upload limits — Gmail caps attachments at 25 MB and Outlook free tier at 20 MB. A 150 MB TIFF won't send; the same image as a 6 MB HEIF goes through with room to spare.
• 10-bit color and HDR delivery — Unlike JPEG (8-bit only), HEIF preserves the wider tonal range professional cameras and scanners capture, making it a better delivery format for high-dynamic-range scenes than legacy 8-bit alternatives.
• Mobile-friendly portfolios — Sharing a high-resolution portfolio over LTE/5G is impractical with TIFF; HEIF makes 4K-class photos feel like JPEGs while looking measurably better.
• Long-term cloud backup costs — Object storage (S3, B2, Google Cloud Storage) charges per GB-month. Trimming a 500 GB TIFF archive to ~30 GB of HEIF pays for itself within months.

TIFF vs HEIF — Format Comparison

If you specifically need the Apple-flavor .heic extension instead of .heif, use TIFF to HEIC. The pipeline is the same HEVC codec — only the file extension differs.

Quality Preset Quick Guide

Drop resolution alongside the preset (e.g., 100 MP → 2160P) when the destination is a phone or 4K display — pixel count drives file size more than the quality slider above Medium.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between HEIF and HEIC, and which does this tool produce?

HEIF is the broader container standard (ISO/IEC 23008-12). HEIC is the specific variant of HEIF that uses HEVC (H.265) compression and the .heic extension — Apple's default. This converter outputs a .heif file using HEVC encoding; mechanically the bitstream is identical to HEIC. If your downstream tool only accepts .heic, you can rename the extension or use TIFF to HEIC directly. AVIF — HEIF with AV1 instead of HEVC — is a separate format; for that use TIFF to AVIF.

Will my TIFF's 16-bit color depth survive the conversion?

HEIF supports up to 12 bits per channel, so a 16-bit TIFF will be tone-mapped down to 12-bit (or 10-bit, depending on encoder profile). For most photographic content the difference is invisible, but for scientific imaging, raw scanner output destined for further heavy editing, or medical imaging where every bit matters, keep the TIFF master and only export HEIF as a delivery copy. HEIF still meaningfully outperforms 8-bit JPEG for HDR scenes.

Why does my 200 MB scan become an 8 MB HEIF — am I losing important detail?

TIFF defaults to lossless compression on a per-pixel basis, so most of those 200 MB are encoding redundancy and uncompressed empty paper. HEVC's intra-frame compression uses transform coding, deblocking, and modern entropy coding to throw away only the visually imperceptible bits. At Very High preset the typical PSNR remains above 45 dB versus the source — perceptually transparent for human viewing. Keep the TIFF master if you'll re-edit, but the HEIF is fine for screen, web, and most prints.

Does HEIF preserve EXIF, GPS, and ICC color profile data from the TIFF?

Yes. EXIF metadata (camera model, exposure, GPS, capture date), embedded ICC profiles (sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto), and IPTC fields are copied across. If you want to strip metadata for privacy before sharing, run the HEIF output through HEIF to JPG which exposes an EXIF-strip option, or use a dedicated metadata scrubber.

Can my Windows PC or Android phone open the resulting HEIF file?

Windows 10 build 1803 and later supports HEIF after installing the free HEIF Image Extensions and the paid (~$0.99) HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store; Windows 11 22H2+ supports it out of the box. Android 8 (Oreo) and later decodes HEIF natively, and Android 10+ adds HEIC support. Older systems may need a converter — for guaranteed universal compatibility convert to TIFF to JPG instead.

Should I convert my multi-page TIFF document scans to HEIF?

HEIF can hold multiple images (image collections), but mainstream viewers tend to show only the primary frame. For multi-page documents — scanned books, contracts, manuscripts — convert to PDF instead via TIFF to PDF so pages stay together with text selection and OCR potential. Reserve HEIF for single-image conversions: photos, prints, single-page scans.

Does converting TIFF to HEIF flatten layers, paths, or Photoshop extras?

Yes. TIFF can carry Photoshop layers, clipping paths, and selection masks; HEIF stores only the flat raster image plus optional auxiliary streams (depth, alpha). If your TIFF was exported from Photoshop with layers, the HEIF will be the equivalent of "Flatten Image → Save As". Keep a layered PSD or TIFF master for future editing.

Is HEIF (HEVC) royalty-free? Will I owe license fees for converting my files?

HEVC is patent-encumbered — manufacturers and software vendors pay licensing pools (MPEG LA, Access Advance, Velos Media). End users converting personal images don't owe per-file royalties; the per-device licenses are typically baked into your OS or the encoder software (e.g., Windows' paid HEVC extension). If royalty-free matters for your distribution pipeline, encode AV1-based TIFF to AVIF instead — AV1 was designed by the Alliance for Open Media specifically to avoid HEVC licensing.

Can I get the TIFF back from a HEIF later?

You can reverse the conversion with HEIF to TIFF, but the result will be a TIFF of the lossy HEIF — you don't recover the bits HEVC discarded. Always keep your original TIFF masters if archival fidelity matters. Treat HEIF outputs as delivery copies, not source files.