How to turn iPhone HEIC photos into a PDF

iPhones save photos as HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) by default. The files are about half the size of JPG, but many upload forms, Windows apps and browsers can't open them, so "please send it as a PDF" turns into a puzzle. Here's what actually works.

On the iPhone itself (easiest)

HEIC is only a problem once the file leaves Apple's apps. If the photos are still on your phone:

Select them in Photos → Share → Print.
Pinch out on the preview to open the PDF, then Share → Save to Files.

Or open PDFSnap in Safari on the iPhone and choose the photos from the picker. When a website asks for images, iOS hands over JPG copies of HEIC photos automatically, so they work everywhere.

On a Mac

Preview and Safari read HEIC natively. Select the files in Finder → right-click → Quick Actions → Create PDF, or drop them into PDFSnap in Safari.

On Windows

Chrome and Edge on Windows generally can't decode HEIC. Options, in order of effort:

If the photos came by AirDrop/iCloud to a Windows PC, re-export from the iPhone instead: in Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC choose Automatic, and iOS converts to JPG when copying over USB.
Install Microsoft's free HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store; the Photos app can then open and print them to PDF.
Open the HEIC in the Windows Photos app, use Save as → JPG, then combine the JPGs.

PDFSnap will tell you if your browser can't open a HEIC file instead of producing a broken PDF. Safari (iPhone, iPad, Mac) can open HEIC directly.

Stop the problem for future photos

On the iPhone go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPG. Files get larger, but every site accepts them.

Does converting HEIC lose quality?

Converting to JPG is lossy, but at normal quality settings the difference isn't visible on a document page. For forms, readable text matters more than detail, so the Balanced setting is plenty.

Open the free images-to-PDF tool

Last updated October 2026.