To give you some background, HEIF (format) is a fairly new adoption in Apple’s ecosystem that started with the rollout of iOS 11, and soon, got picked up by Google with Android P. Due to this wide adoption throughout the entire smartphone ecosystem, Microsoft had to step in and offer support for HEIF and HEVC files on its platform. So now, you can enable support and open HEIF and HEVC files on Windows 10. However, if you happen to be a macOS user and want a way to convert HEIF images to JPEG, here’s how using Automator.
Create a Service to Convert HEIF Images to JPEG
Open Spotlight Search (Command + Space) and search for the Automator app and open it.
Hit New Document, and from Choose a type for your document window, select Quick Action and hit Choose.
On the next screen, in the right pane, hit the drop-down menu next to Workflow receives current and select image files.
From the left pane, choose Files & Folders and select and drag New Folder to the workflow area on the right.
Here, give the folder a name. For convenience, let’s call it HEIF to JPEG, and select the location where you want to create this folder on your Mac.
Again, with Files & Folders selected, choose Get Folder Contents and drag it below the current action in the workflow area.
Now, on the left pane, choose Photos, and from the options on the right, select Change Type of Images and drag it to the workflow area. And in the pop-up window that comes up, tap Don’t Add since we are already saving the converted images to a new folder.
In the Change Type of Images action, tap on the drop-down menu next to To Type and select JPEG.
Next, press command + s or go to File > Save to save the quick action you just created.
Finally, give the action a name and hit Save. Let’s call it HEIF to JPEG for convenience.
Execute Service
Once you have created the quick action to convert HEIF images to JPEG, you need to go to the folder with the HEIF images that you need to convert.
Here, you need to select all the HEIF images that you need to convert to JPEG.
Next, right-click (control + click) on the selected images, and from the list of options, go to Services and tap on the quick action you just created.
Once done, you should see a folder on your Desktop (or the location you selected to create the folder) with all the HEIF images converted into JPEG.
Create a Shortcut to Execute Service
Although you can execute the service using the steps mentioned above, the process is still tedious and requires you to perform a few clicks. Thankfully, there’s a way to get around this, and it does not require you to do much. Here’s how –
Open Spotlight Search (Command + Space) and search for System Preferences.
In System Preferences, choose Keyboard, and on the next screen, tap on the Shortcuts tab.
From the left pane, choose Services.
Now, on the right pane, under Pictures, tap on HEIF to JPEG (or whatever you named your Service) and tap on the Add Shortcut button to its right.
Here, enter a key combination that is easy to remember, and most importantly, not already assigned to another service.
Finally, once you have assigned a key combination, you are all set to execute the service using the shortcut. Now, all you need to do to convert HEIF images to JPEG is selecting the images and pressuring the key combination you assigned to the service. And that’s it! You should now find all the converted images from HEIF to JPEG format in a separate folder on your Mac.
