HEIC to GIF87 Converter
FileFlip converts HEIC to GIF87 entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an HEIC file to GIF87?#
- Drop your HEIC file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to GIF87 and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the GIF87 file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting HEIC to GIF87 lose quality?#
GIF87 is a lossless format, so nothing further is lost here, but nothing is recovered either. Whatever the HEIC encoder already threw away is gone, and the GIF87 file will usually be several times larger for exactly the same content.
Is it safe to convert HEIC files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts HEIC files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What HEIC to GIF87 actually does to the file#
Converting HEIC to GIF87 runs on ImageMagick, downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, writes a lossless file that cannot recover what the source already discarded, and drops EXIF metadata, ICC colour profile, transparency, animation frames and extra images.
| Engine | ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: HEIC → GIF87 |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless output, but nothing is recovered |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF metadata | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| ICC colour profile | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Transparency | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Animation frames | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Extra images | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- ImageMagick is asked for a single image, so only the first frame, page, or icon size is read
- the target holds at most 256 colours, so a full-colour image is quantised to a palette
What is an HEIC file?#
An HEIC file contains one or more images saved in the High Efficiency Image Format, the container Apple has used for iPhone and iPad photos since iOS 11 because it stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPEG.
Keep photos as HEIC while they stay on Apple devices, where the space saving is free and nothing loses quality.
Convert HEIC to JPG when a file has to leave the Apple ecosystem, which in practice means uploading it anywhere, emailing it to someone on Windows, or printing it.
What is a GIF87 file?#
A GIF87 file follows the original 1987 Graphics Interchange Format specification that CompuServe published two years before GIF89a added transparency and animation, so it stores a single, fully opaque image using the same LZW compression and 256-color palette as any other GIF.
There's essentially no reason to target GIF87 today; write a plain GIF, which is GIF89a, instead unless a specific tool or test needs the older header.
Convert to GIF89a or PNG when the image needs transparency or animation, since GIF87 supports neither.
HEIC to GIF87 questions people ask#
Why are my iPhone photos HEIC instead of JPG?
iPhones save photos as HEIC by default because the format stores the same image in about half the space of a JPEG. Changing Settings, Camera, Formats to Most Compatible switches new photos to JPEG, though it does not convert the pictures already in your library.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
Converting HEIC to JPG re-encodes the image with a different lossy codec, so a small amount of detail is discarded. At high JPEG quality the difference is not visible at normal viewing sizes, but the resulting file is usually larger than the HEIC it came from, and 16-bit colour is reduced to 8-bit.
Can Windows open HEIC files?
Windows 11 shows HEIC files only after the HEIF Image Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store, and the HEVC Video Extensions they depend on are a paid download. Converting to JPG avoids the codec entirely and works on any version of Windows.
What happens to a Live Photo when I convert HEIC to JPG?
A Live Photo stores a still image and a short video as separate items. Converting the HEIC keeps the still frame and discards the motion, because JPEG holds exactly one image and has nowhere to put the video.