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pdfconversionapi

HEIC to PNG API

POST a HEIC to /v2/convert/heic/to/png and get the decoded photo as an 8-bit RGB PNG, upright and at full size unless you resize it. Nothing is lost after the HEIC's own compression, but the file grows: 22,517 bytes in, 195,656 out for the sample.

Endpoint
POST /v2/convert/heic/to/png
Accepts
heic
Sample timing
45 ms median of 5 runsHow we measure
Request size
Up to 10 MB on the Free plan or 100 MB on paid plans, all files together

Request and response

Every sample below ran against the API before this page was published. Set PDFCONVERSIONAPI_KEY to your key and run it as is.

curl -sS -X POST \
  https://api.pdfconversionapi.com/v2/convert/heic/to/png \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PDFCONVERSIONAPI_KEY" \
  -F File=@harbor-dusk.heic \
  -o response.json

# FileData is base64. Save the first file in converted/,
# or print the JSON error.
if jq -e '.Files' response.json > /dev/null; then
  mkdir -p converted
  name=$(jq -r '.Files[0].FileName' response.json)
  jq -r '.Files[0].FileData' response.json \
    | base64 --decode > "converted/$name"
else
  cat response.json
fi
200 OK45 ms median1 file, 191 KB
{
  "ConversionCost": 1,
  "ConversionTime": 0.045,
  "Files": [
    {
      "FileName": "harbor-dusk.png",
      "FileExt": "png",
      "FileSize": 195656,
      "FileData": "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAA…"
    }
  ]
}

Response from our test run on 2026-11-03. ConversionTime shows the median of 5 runs. FileData is shortened here; the real response carries the whole file as base64.

The sample, converted

The same file the code sends. Download the input and the output and compare them yourself.

First page of harbor-dusk.png, rendered by the API
Input
harbor-dusk.heic (22 KB)
Output
harbor-dusk.png (191 KB)
Source
A harbor at dusk that we drew ourselves, saved as a 400 x 300 HEIC stored sideways with a rotation flag and made-up camera and GPS tags. (CC0-1.0). How it was made
Made by
2026-11-04, API build 9eeeb0640aba

Parameters

Send these as form fields next to the file. Names are case-insensitive. If you set one of the documented options below that we don't support yet, the request fails with a 400 that names it instead of returning a file made without it.

ParameterWhat it does
ImageWidthintegerOutput width in pixels; 200 gives 200 × 150 and 41,179 bytes for the sample.Values: 1–20000
ImageHeightintegerOutput height, or with ImageWidth the box the photo is fitted into.Values: 1–20000
ScaleProportionsboolean, default truefalse stretches to both sizes: 200 × 200 came back square.
ScaleIfLargerboolean, default falsetrue leaves photos smaller than the target at their own size.
ScaleImageboolean, default truefalse crops the top-left area instead of scaling.
ImageResolutionintegerWrites a pHYs chunk: 300 gives a PNG that reports 300 dpi. Without it the PNG has no resolution.Values: 10–800
ColorSpaceenum, default defaultgray writes an 8-bit grayscale PNG (64,990 bytes for the sample); monochrome a two-level gray PNG of 2,730 bytes.Values: default, rgb, gray, monochrome
TransparentColorstringMakes pixels of exactly this color transparent and adds an alpha channel. 13,32,62 cleared 718 grainy sea pixels; nearby shades stayed.Values: #RRGGBB, R,G,B or a basic color name
ImageInterpolationboolean, default falseAccepted as true or false; resizing always uses a Lanczos3 filter, so it changes nothing.
FileNamestringName for the PNG without .png.
StoreFileboolean, default falsetrue returns a 3-hour download URL instead of base64.

What carries over, and what doesn't

Kept

  • The upright view: stored sideways with a rotation flag, the sample comes out 400 × 300
  • Decoded colors: on average within 1 level per channel of an independent HEIC decoder, at most 21 apart
  • All 14,684 distinct colors of the decoded photo, with no further compression loss
  • Transparency, when the HEIC has an alpha plane: HEIF to PNG shows a sticker that keeps its soft edges

Lost or not yet supported

  • EXIF and XMP: camera, time and GPS position. The PNG contains only the IHDR, IDAT and IEND chunks.
  • Any color tag. No ICC profile, sRGB or gAMA chunk is written.
  • Correct tones for HEIC files that embed a Display P3 profile: grays of 16, 235 and 245 came out as 0, 255 and 255.
  • Size: the PNG is 8.7 times the HEIC for the sample.

Limits

  • One HEIC per request; only the primary picture of a multi-image file.
  • Up to 100,000,000 pixels; a 10,240 × 10,240 HEIC returned 413.
  • Requests up to 10 MB on the Free plan or 100 MB on paid plans and 120 seconds per conversion.
  • A HEIC saved at a desktop encoder's top quality setting returned 422 'malformed data'; the same harbor at quality 80 converts.

Where teams use it

Editing or processing phone photos

In tools without HEIC support, converting to PNG first avoids a second lossy step before cropping, annotating or running recognition on the photo.

Displaying uploads in browsers that lack HEIC

Chrome, Edge and Firefox don't display HEIC; a PNG of the upload shows in all three. For large photos, heic/to/jpg or heic/to/webp give smaller files.

Screenshots and graphics saved as HEIC

Text and flat colors suffer from a second lossy encode; PNG keeps the decoded pixels exactly.

Questions

Is HEIC to PNG lossless?

The PNG holds the decoded pixels exactly, so nothing is lost in this step. The HEIC itself was lossy, so its compression artifacts are kept too. Compared with the drawing before it was saved as HEIC, the sample's pixels differ by about 2 levels on average.

Will a photo taken in portrait come out sideways?

Not if the HEIC records its rotation. The sample stores 300 × 400 pixels with a quarter-turn flag; the PNG is 400 × 300 and upright, and the flag isn't carried over, so viewers won't turn it twice.

Why do some converted photos look washed out or too bright?

HEIC files that describe their color with an embedded Display P3 profile are decoded with stretched tones: dark grays get darker and light grays turn white. Files without an embedded profile, like the sample, are not affected. The PNG carries no profile either way.

Why is the PNG so much larger than the HEIC?

HEIC uses HEVC compression, which is lossy and far more compact than PNG's lossless compression. For the sample, 22,517 bytes became 195,656. Use ImageWidth to scale down, or heic/to/jpg when lossless isn't needed.

Convert your first HEIC file in a minute.