Will transparency survive the conversion?

PNG to HEIC is a direct conversion between two formats that both predate the modern web. HEIC — High Efficiency Image Container — is lossy hevc intra-frame, and opens where apple platforms natively; windows needs a codec; no browser renders it.

The practical reason to run this conversion is the destination: Converting WebP to HEIC normalises web-sourced images into the format an Apple photo library expects, so downloaded reference images sit alongside camera roll photos instead of as awkward outsiders.

Expect HEIC output to be comparable to WebP, often slightly smaller. If the source PNG is a photograph rather than a graphic, choose lossy WebP — lossless mode will save far less than you expect on continuous-tone detail.

Reasons to convert PNG to HEIC usually come down to compatibility, file-size, or specific feature requirements. Common situations:

• An app or platform only accepts HEIC uploads.
• You need a feature unique to HEIC (e.g. transparency, vector scaling, animation, multi-page pages, etc.) that PNG doesn't provide.
• You're optimising file size — modern formats often produce smaller files than the older format you started with.
• You need a single archival format across a project so files behave consistently in the same viewer.

1. Open the PNG → HEIC tool on webp.now.
2. Drag your PNG file onto the drop zone, or click Select files. You can drop a whole folder of files at once.
3. The output is fixed to HEIC. If the format supports extra options (page size, transparency background, quality, EXIF stripping), tweak them in the right-hand panel.
4. Click Convert. The job runs on our server and finishes in a few seconds for typical photos.
5. Download the result. Files stay in storage for 24 hours and are then permanently deleted.

The entire flow is free for the first 10 jobs per day with no signup required. A free account doubles that quota; a premium plan removes the limit entirely.

• If the goal is simply "make this open in my software", HEIC is usually the right call — but check whether the destination accepts PNG or JPG first, since those are accepted even more widely.
• Convert from the highest-quality WebP you have. Each lossy re-encode costs a little detail, and starting from an already-compressed copy compounds it.
• Strip metadata before sharing. Images saved from the web can carry the original photographer's EXIF, including camera serial and, occasionally, GPS coordinates.
• Batch the job rather than converting one at a time — the queue runs conversions in parallel and returns a single zip.
• Keep the .webp original if the image is also going back onto a web page. Serving the HEIC version instead will cost you page weight.