By now, you likely know about HEIC image format. If not, HEIC is a relatively new image format which takes about 40% lesser space than the popular JPG image format without compromising on the picture quality.
Because HEIC takes about half the space of JPG, Apple started using this lesser-known image format in their iPhones and made the image format popular overnight.
Apple iPhone devices running iOS 11 or later have an option to save captured pictures in HEIC instead of JPG to save space. If you own a 32 GB or 64 GB model of iPhone, it makes sense to enable and use the HEIC image format on your iPhone. While iPhone 7 and later versions can automatically convert HEIC to JPG while transferring them to your PC, you might want to keep the original picture format to save disk space on your PC as well. But how do you open those HEIC pictures on a Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 PC as the format is not supported?
Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 do not support HEIC image format out of the box as the HEIC did not exist back then. In fact, Windows 10 1709 and earlier versions did not support HEIC image format. Microsoft brought the support for HEIC only with version 1803 (April 2018 Update for Windows 10) which was released in April 2018.
Open HEIC pictures in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1
If you are still on Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 for some reason and want to open and view HEIC/HEIF image format on your PC, you have no option but to go for third-party tools.
CopyTrans HEIC is a free plugin for Windows operating system to enable PC users to open and view HEIC/HEIF pictures with ease. The good thing is that you can open HEIC/HEIF in your default picture viewer (Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 7 and Windows 8) once the CopyTrans HEIC is installed on your PC. Besides, it will also enable thumbnails for HEIC pictures in Windows Explorer (did not work for us though).
The software not only enables you to view HEIC/HEIF picture but also allows you to convert HEIC to JPEG when required. To do that, right-click on a HEIC/HEIF image format and then click Convert to JPEG with CopyTrans option.
As said earlier, CopyTrans HEIC is a must have software for iPhone users who often backup and view data on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 PCs.
Please note that you won’t be able to open HEVC videos even after installing CopyTrans HEIC plugin on your PC.
Visit the following link to download the latest version of CopyTrans HEIC.
Download CopyTrans HEIC
