What The Heck Is A HEIC File, And How Do I Open It?

[Lucian Armasu]

HEIC, the new High Efficiency Image Container, promises to cut the photo size in half while increasing quality and supporting 16-bit color, HDR, and other features.

What The Heck Is A HEIC File, And How Do I Open It? : Read more

 

[matmat9v]

That is not exactly true. Apowersoft Photo Viewer can display HEIC files. There is also support from XNView.

 

[USAFRet]

That is not exactly true. Apowersoft Photo Viewer can display HEIC files. There is also support from XNView.

For all 3 of us that use XNView. :lol:

HEIC may gain popularity. It may not.
Just have to see what happens.

 

[bit_user]

HEIC images promise to be half the size or smaller compared to JPEG images, but with even better quality.

I think JPEG 2000 is probably in that ballpark, and it patents should've all expired by now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000#Improvements_over_the_1992_JPEG_standard

 

[kryojenix]

I wanted Fabrice Bellard's BPG - Better Portable Graphics - format to win. It's free, but uses x264 derived compression so may be subject to the same patent claims as HEIF.

 

[bit_user]

I wanted Fabrice Bellard's BPG - Better Portable Graphics - format to win. It's free, but uses x264 derived compression so may be subject to the same patent claims as HEIF.

You know this uses H.265-derived compression, right?

There's no question H.265 was an improvement over H.264, so why use H.264?

 

[chicofehr]

Not a fan of this. Its another closes source patent ridden format. MPEG seems to get its way every time. How about an open source standard. I'm sure MPEG is giving kickbacks to the CEO's in Hollywood and tech companies to not use open source formats.

 

[Valantar]

Does the tech this has in common with HEVC mean that decoding can be done by the same hardware, or does this rely entirely on software decoding? Wouldn't that be a rather significant con, if so? And wouldn't that limit effective use to relatively new platforms?

Also, in storing more data (including HDR info), does that mean that it can store more than 8-bit color? Wider color gamuts?

 

[randomizer]

Probably better to use something derived from a royalty-free codec like AV1.

 

[alextheblue]

HEIC images promise to be half the size or smaller compared to JPEG images, but with even better quality.

I think JPEG 2000 is probably in that ballpark, and it patents should've all expired by now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000#Improvements_over_the_1992_JPEG_standard

What I have read about JPEG 2000 indicated that real gains over JPEG weren't typically that massive, and it was more computationally intensive. That won't be an issue for PCs but I doubt it is hardware-accelerated in current smartphone SoCs, which could be a minor issue if everything has to be done in software.

Anyway JPEG 2000 has other advantages over JPEG, but so does HEIF. Plus practically everything supports (and accelerates) H.265 now, so I imagine HEIF would also benefit. At this point if all the major OS vendors are going to support it (and thus most phones), it will probably succeed - it's already got more traction than JPEG 2000 ever did. But time will tell.

 

[toadhammer]

HEIC has been a PITA. While my phone is running the new ios, my older mac doesn't have HEIC support. I don't care what format wins, but it will probably be the one that has support on older machines.

 

[alextheblue]

HEIC has been a PITA. While my phone is running the new ios, my older mac doesn't have HEIC support. I don't care what format wins, but it will probably be the one that has support on older machines.

That's kind of the responsibility of the OS, not the new image format developers. Although if you have an older machine running Windows 10, you'll get support for free when it's available. Tell Apple you want a free upgrade and support for HEIF/HEIC. Maybe they'll mail you a coupon or free t-shirt.

Seriously though I'm sure some third-party software will support it. It's nice to have support baked into the OS but not always 100% necessary.

 

[toadhammer]

HEIC has been a PITA. While my phone is running the new ios, my older mac doesn't have HEIC support. I don't care what format wins, but it will probably be the one that has support on older machines.

That's kind of the responsibility of the OS, not the new image format developers. Although if you have an older machine running Windows 10, you'll get support for free when it's available. Tell Apple you want a free upgrade and support for HEIF/HEIC. Maybe they'll mail you a coupon or free t-shirt.

Older == windows 10? right back atcha!

 

[kohaner]

Actually now you can use imagemaigic for offline heic to jpeg conversion. HEIC/HEIF support was added about 2 months ago. Advised in article service doesn't allow to adjust quality of images, for quick convertation I use https://heic2jpeg.com/ , for batch converation (more than 50 images) imagemaigic is a right choice.