iPhone photos taken in HEIC format are not universally compatible — many systems and apps cannot open .heic files. Converting them to PDF makes them shareable everywhere. Here is how to convert HEIC to PDF for free.
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple's default photo format on iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. HEIC files are roughly half the size of JPG at the same quality, but they are not supported by older Windows versions, many web platforms, and most PDF editors.
Most browsers cannot read HEIC natively. The easiest approach: on your iPhone, go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible — this saves future photos as JPG. For existing HEIC files, AirDrop to Mac (which auto-converts to JPG) or use a free HEIC converter to get a JPG.
Tip: On a Mac, simply open the HEIC file in Preview and File → Export as JPEG. This is the fastest way to get a JPG from a HEIC on Apple devices.
Once you have the JPG, go to pdfeditor.onl/convert-pdf and upload it. Select PDF as the output. Multiple JPGs can be converted to a single multi-page PDF by merging them first.
Click Convert & Download. Your iPhone photo is now a universally compatible PDF that opens on any device without special software.
Some browsers on macOS (Safari 14+) can read HEIC natively. If your browser supports it, you may be able to upload the .heic file directly. On Windows and older browsers, convert to JPG first.
HEIC → JPG → PDF involves one re-encoding step. At 90%+ JPG quality, the visible difference is negligible for photos. For archival purposes, use PNG as an intermediate format to avoid any lossy compression.