HEIF to GIF87 Converter
FileFlip converts HEIF 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 HEIF file to GIF87?#
- Drop your HEIF 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 HEIF to GIF87 lose quality?#
GIF87 is a lossless format, so nothing further is lost here, but nothing is recovered either. Whatever the HEIF 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 HEIF files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts HEIF 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 HEIF to GIF87 actually does to the file#
Converting HEIF 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: HEIF → 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 HEIF file?#
An HEIF file is a general-purpose container, built on the same ISO base media file format as MP4, that can hold one or more images encoded with any of several codecs, HEVC being the case Apple names HEIC and AV1 being the case standardized separately as AVIF.
Expect HEIF, rather than HEIC specifically, from cameras and devices that encode stills with a codec other than HEVC, since HEIF is the umbrella container those files also use.
Convert a HEIF file to JPEG or PNG when the destination only accepts a single, codec-agnostic raster image, since most upload forms and older software carry no HEIF decoder at all.
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.
HEIF to GIF87 questions people ask#
What's the difference between HEIF and HEIC?
HEIF is the container format, defined by ISO/IEC 23008-12, and it can hold images encoded with several different codecs. HEIC is specifically a HEIF file whose images are encoded with HEVC, which is the case Apple uses for iPhone and iPad photos, so every HEIC file is a HEIF file but not every HEIF file is a HEIC file.
Is AVIF the same thing as HEIF?
AVIF is a HEIF file whose images are encoded with the AV1 codec, in the same way HEIC is a HEIF file encoded with HEVC. The AVIF specification is written explicitly as a profile of HEIF, but it registers its own MIME type and extension because AV1 avoids the patent licensing that comes with HEVC.
Why does my camera save photos with a .heif extension instead of .heic?
Some cameras, including recent Canon and Sony models, encode HEIF stills for 10-bit HDR photography using a codec setup that isn't the HEVC-in-HEIF case Apple calls HEIC, so they label the file with the generic .heif extension instead. The underlying container is the same either way.
What is a GIF87 file?
A GIF87 file follows the original 1987 Graphics Interchange Format specification that CompuServe published before adding transparency and animation in 1989's GIF89a. It stores a single, fully opaque static image.