HEIC is Apple's default photo format for iPhones and iPads since iOS 11 in 2017. Built on the HEIF container standard using HEVC compression, HEIC files are roughly half the size of equivalent JPGs at the same visual quality. This means your iPhone stores twice as many photos in the same space. HEIC supports 16-bit color depth, providing wider dynamic range than JPG's 8-bit limit. The format also stores depth maps, Live Photo sequences, and burst mode images. Despite these advantages, HEIC remains poorly supported outside Apple's ecosystem — Windows requires an extension, and many web tools reject the format entirely. Most online image to text converters do not accept HEIC uploads at all, forcing iPhone users to manually export to JPG first.

HEIC to text conversion matters for anyone using an iPhone or iPad as their primary camera. Photographs of documents, receipts, whiteboards, signs, and business cards taken on recent iPhones are saved as HEIC by default. Without a tool that accepts HEIC directly, you would need to open each photo, export it as JPG for text extraction — a tedious multi-step process. Students photographing lecture slides, travelers capturing foreign language signs, and professionals snapping quick reference photos all benefit from direct HEIC text extraction. AirDropped photos from colleagues arrive as HEIC. For iPad screenshots, our dedicated extractor handles those PNG captures directly. Direct HEIC support removes the conversion friction entirely.

ImagText accepts HEIC files directly — no manual conversion required. The server automatically converts HEIC to a raster format using the sharp image library before sending it to the AI vision model. This conversion preserves the full 16-bit color information and high resolution of the original photo. The AI then processes the converted image with the same accuracy as any other format. Because HEIC photos from iPhones tend to be high resolution with excellent dynamic range, text extraction results are often among the best across all formats. The automatic conversion happens server-side in milliseconds, so the experience is identical to uploading a JPG — drop the HEIC file and get text back. No quality is lost in the conversion pipeline.

HEIC photos from iPhones typically produce excellent text extraction results due to Apple's computational photography pipeline. The cameras apply noise reduction, sharpening, and exposure optimization before saving. For best results when photographing text, use the standard Photo mode rather than Portrait mode, which adds background blur that can affect text near depth boundaries. Night mode photos may contain visible grain in text regions. ProRAW or HEIF 10-bit captures also work through the same conversion pipeline. Ensure the text fills a reasonable portion of the frame — the iPhone's 12MP or 48MP sensor provides more than enough resolution, but photographing a small sign from far away reduces character clarity. The HEIC format's superior compression means large document photos often stay under 3 MB while retaining full detail.