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HEIC

High Efficiency Image Container

image/heic Released 2017 · by MPEG (Standard) / Apple (Adoption)

HEIC is Apple's variant of the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) standard, which stores images and image sequences encoded with the HEVC (H.265) video codec. It offers significantly better compression than JPEG while natively supporting advanced computational photography features like 16-bit color, transparency, Live Photos, and depth maps.

Photography Transparency Animation ✦ HDR Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type
image/heic
Extensions
.heic
Container
HEIF / ISOBMFF
Compression
Lossy & Lossless
Algorithms
HEVC (H.265)
Color Depth
8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit
Metadata
EXIF XMP ICC
Capabilities
Transparency
Animation
Progressive Loading
Alpha Channel
HDR Support
Official Specification
Aliases: image/heif

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 68 65 69 63
ASCII: ....ftypheic
HTTP Headers
Content-Type: image/heic
HTML Accept Attribute
accept="image/heic, .heic"

Browser Support Matrix

Browser Status Min Version
Chrome Chrome
Not Supported
Firefox Firefox
Not Supported
Safari Safari
Supported 11+
Edge Edge
Not Supported
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer
Not Supported Legacy

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages
  • Exceptional compression efficiency — stores images at roughly half the file size of JPEG with equal or better visual quality
  • Natively supports modern photography features like depth maps, 16-bit color, HDR, and alpha channel transparency
  • Can store image bursts, focal stacks, and animations (Live Photos) within a single file
Limitations
  • Heavily encumbered by software patents, leading to very poor adoption outside the Apple ecosystem
  • Not supported by standard web browsers (except Safari), requiring server-side or client-side conversion for web delivery
  • Windows requires downloading a separate (often paid) extension from the Microsoft Store to view natively

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
print(magic.from_file('photo.heic', mime=True)) # May output 'image/heic' or 'image/heif' depending on libmagic configuration
const FileType = require('file-type');
const type = await FileType.fromFile('photo.heic');
console.log(type.mime); // image/heic
import "net/http"

mimeType := http.DetectContentType(fileBytes)
// Standard Go net/http may default to application/octet-stream; use a specialized ISOBMFF/filetype library
$mime = mime_content_type('photo.heic');
echo $mime; // Standard environments often require an updated magic.mime file to correctly identify HEIC

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/heic file by reading its raw bytes:

  1. 1 Check for ISOBMFF 'ftyp' box at byte offset 4
  2. 2 Verify 'heic' or 'heix' brand string at byte offset 8

Software Support

A
Apple Photos
A
Adobe Photoshop
GIMP GIMP
ImageMagick ImageMagick
W
Windows Photos (with HEIF Extension)

Conversion Tools

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HEIC Format Badge
[![HEIC Format](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/heic/badge.svg)](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/heic)
Interactive iframe Widget
<iframe src="https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/heic/embed" width="100%" height="280" style="border:1px solid #cbd5e1;border-radius:8px;" title="HEIC Specs"></iframe>

JSON API

All data on this page is available as a free, open JSON API. Use it in your project, documentation, or tooling.

GET https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/heic.json Open JSON
Free to use
No auth required
CORS enabled
Use from any domain
Cached 24h
Cache-Control headers set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the magic byte for HEIC?

HEIC uses the ISOBMFF container format. A typical HEIC file begins with a 4-byte box size, followed by the 'ftyp' box identifier, and then the 'heic' or 'heix' major brand. The hex representation is generally XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 68 65 69 63 (....ftypheic).

Is HEIC the same as HEIF?

Not exactly. HEIF is the overarching container format (which can hold various codecs), while HEIC specifically refers to a HEIF file where the image data is encoded using the HEVC (H.265) video codec.

Do web browsers support HEIC?

Native support is very poor. Only Apple's Safari (on macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 or later) supports HEIC natively. Chrome, Firefox, and Edge do not support it due to licensing issues with the HEVC codec. Images must be converted to JPEG, WebP, or AVIF for the web.

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