Why iPhone photos are HEIC, and why some sites refuse them
An iPhone saves photos as HEIC unless you have changed Settings › Camera › Formats from High Efficiency to Most Compatible (Apple’s own page on HEIF and HEVC media gives that path). HEIC keeps the same picture in a smaller file than JPEG, which is why it is the iPhone’s choice. The trouble starts when the photo leaves the phone. Plenty of upload forms still accept only JPG, PNG or PDF, and a Windows computer often shows a HEIC file as an icon it cannot open.
Apple converts photos to JPEG as they leave the phone in some cases, for example when the receiving device does not support HEIC, but not in all of them. So the safe way to send several photos of a passport, a lease or a stack of receipts is one PDF: every computer opens it, every form that takes documents takes it, and the pages stay in the order you meant.
There are three ways to get there on an iPhone without installing anything. We tried each one on iOS 27, in Apple’s iPhone simulator, and on the site’s own pages in Safari, and the steps below are what those screens showed.
Way 1: Print to PDF from the Photos app
The Print screen in Photos can hand you a PDF instead of sending the pages to a printer.
- In Photos, tap Select and tap each photo you want.
- Tap the Share button, scroll down the sheet and tap Print.
- On the Options screen, tap the Share button at the top, next to the printer button. The sheet that opens shows the file as a PDF Document with its size.
- Tap Save to Files, choose a folder and tap Save.
Two photos gave us a PDF called Photo with two pages. The catch is the paper. With no printer chosen, the Paper Size list offers photo-print sizes (3½ x 5, 4 x 6, 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 inches, A6, postcards), and 4 x 6 inches is picked for you. There was no A4 or Letter on the list, so this route suits a quick PDF to send to a person, less so a form that expects document pages.
Way 2: Create PDF in the Files app
If the photos are already in Files (in Photos, Share › Save to Files puts them there), Files can join them itself.
- Open the folder, tap the More button (the three dots) and tap Select.
- Tap each photo.
- Tap More at the bottom right, then Quick Actions, then Create PDF.
The PDF appears in the same folder, named after the first photo. In our test it worked for HEIC photos as well as JPGs, and a HEIC photo taken upright came out as an upright page. Two things to know before you rely on it. Each page is exactly the size of its photo, so a landscape photo makes a wide page and a portrait photo a tall one. And the pages follow the folder’s order, by name, not the order you tapped them. To control the order, rename the photos first (1 front, 2 back) and then create the PDF.
Way 3: JPG to PDF in Safari, for document pages in a set order
When the PDF is for an office, a visa portal or an HR system, you usually want A4 or Letter pages, a fixed order and sometimes a size limit. That is what the JPG to PDF page on this site is built for, and it runs inside Safari: the photos are turned into the PDF on your phone and are never uploaded.
- Open JPG to PDF in Safari and tap Choose images, then pick the photos from your library or from Files. HEIC is accepted as it is. Take a photo opens the camera instead, and every photo you take becomes a page.
- The list shows each photo as a page. Drag a photo to a new place, or tap the up and down buttons beside it, until the order is right.
- Pick a Page size: A4, Letter or Fit image (each page the size of its photo). With A4 or Letter you can also set the Orientation and a Margin of None, Small or Large.
- If a form gives a limit, set the File size limit (more on that below), then tap Create PDF.
- When Your PDF is ready appears, tap Save to Files or share. On an Android phone the same card offers Save as… and Download.
The HEIC to PDF page is the same tool set up for iPhone photos: it starts on Fit image and names the file photos.pdf.
Try it: JPG to PDF
Photos from your library or the camera, in the order you set, on A4, Letter or photo-sized pages.
Keeping the PDF under a form’s limit
Phone photos are large, and a PDF of eight of them can be far over the 1 MB or 200 KB a portal allows. Neither Apple route lets you set a size. In JPG to PDF you can: tap 100, 200 or 300 KB under File size limit, or type any figure from 5 to 20,000 KB in the box beside them. The tool then stores each photo as a JPG at the best quality that keeps the whole file under that figure.
The limit is shared by every page, so the number of photos matters as much as the limit. Ten photos under 200 KB leaves each page about 20 KB, far less than one phone photo, so zoom in on the result and check that small print can still be read. If a page has to stay sharp, send fewer photos per PDF, or crop each photo to the document before you add it. If the tool cannot reach the limit, it says so and still offers the smallest PDF it could make.
Any result over 300 KB also gets a Make it smaller button on the result card. It shrinks the pictures to screen size in one tap, and Compress PDF goes further if you need a set number of KB.
Which way fits which job
| What differs | Photos › Print | Files › Create PDF | JPG to PDF in Safari |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEIC photos | Yes, from your library | Yes | Yes |
| Page size | Photo paper, 4 x 6 inches unless you change it | Each photo’s own size | A4, Letter or each photo’s size |
| Page order | Check the preview pages before you share | The folder’s order, by name | Drag to set it |
| Size limit | No | No | 5 to 20,000 KB |
| Where the PDF goes | Save to Files, or any app in the share sheet | The same folder as the photos | Save to Files, or any app in the share sheet |
For one or two photos sent to a friend, Way 1 is quickest. For photos already sorted in a folder, Way 2. For anything an office will print, store or size-check, Way 3.
Before you send it
Open the PDF once in Files and swipe through every page. Check that no page is sideways (photos are turned the way the camera recorded them, so a photo taken with the phone flat on a desk can land the wrong way round), that the order is right and that small print is still readable when you zoom in. Then check the size in the file’s details against the form’s limit.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a PDF from iPhone photos without installing any app?
Yes. Two routes are built into iOS: Share › Print in the Photos app, where the Options screen has a Share button that hands over the pages as a PDF, and Select › More › Quick Actions › Create PDF in the Files app. A browser page such as JPG to PDF is the third, and it needs nothing installed either.
Why is the PDF from my photos so big?
Each page carries the whole photo at the camera’s full resolution, and a phone photo is usually a few megabytes. Ten of them make a PDF of tens of megabytes. Set a file size limit before you create the PDF, or tap Make it smaller on the result, which shrinks the pictures to screen size.
Does the PDF keep the location where my photos were taken?
Not when you use JPG to PDF or HEIC to PDF: each photo is drawn again into the PDF as a picture, and the GPS position and camera details in the original file are left behind. We have not tested what Apple’s Print and Create PDF keep, so use the browser route if the location must not travel with the file.
How do I put the photos in a set order?
In JPG to PDF, drag each photo to its place in the list, or tap the up and down buttons beside it. Files’ Create PDF follows the folder’s order by name, whatever order you tap them in, so rename the photos first (1 front, 2 back). In the Print screen, swipe through the preview pages before you share.
The form wants a JPG, not a PDF. What then?
Convert the HEIC photo to JPG instead of making a PDF: HEIC to JPG does that in the browser, one photo or many at once. If the form also sets a size such as 100 KB, the compress-to-size pages bring a JPG under it.
Written by Saad Naeem
AI engineer in Doha who builds every tool on ToolboxHere. The figures in the guides come from the official sources named in them or from the tools themselves. Found a mistake? Tell us and it is corrected.