build/heif/index.html


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<h1 id="converting-heif-images-with-macos-automator">Converting HEIF Images with macOS Automator</h1>

<p>2023-07-21</p>

<p>Often times when you save or export photos from iOS to iCloud they often render themselves into <code>heif</code> or <code>heic</code> formats. Both macOS and iOS have no problem working with these formats, but a lot of software programs will not even recognize these filetypes. The obvious step would just be to convert them via an application or online service, right?</p>

<p>Not so fast! Wouldn&#8217;t it be much cleaner if we could simply right-click our <code>heif</code> or <code>heic</code> files and convert them directly in Finder? Well, I&#8217;ve got some good news for you&#8230;</p>

<h2 id="basic-requirements">Basic Requirements</h2>

<ol>
<li>You will need to have <a href="https://homebrew.sh">Homebrew</a> installed</li>
<li>You will need to install the <code>libheif</code> package through Homebrew: <code>brew install libheif</code></li>
</ol>

<h2 id="creating-our-custom-automator-script">Creating our custom Automator script</h2>

<p>For this example script we are going to convert the image to JPG format. You can freely change this to whatever format you wish (PNG, TIFF, etc.). We&#8217;re just keeping things basic for this tutorial. Don&#8217;t worry if you&#8217;ve never worked with Automator before because setting things up is incredibly simple.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Open the macOS Automator from the Applications folder</p></li>
<li><p>Select <code>Quick Option</code> from the first prompt</p></li>
<li><p>Set &#8220;Workflow receives current&#8221; to <code>image files</code></p></li>
<li><p>Set the label &#8220;in&#8221; to <code>Finder</code></p></li>
<li><p>From the left pane, select &#8220;Library &#62; Utilities&#8221;</p></li>
<li><p>From the presented choices in the next pane, drag and drop <code>Run Shell Script</code> into the far right pane</p></li>
<li><p>Set the area &#8220;Pass input&#8221; to <code>as arguments</code></p></li>
<li><p>Enter the following code below as your script and type <code>⌘-S</code> to save (name it something like &#8220;Convert HEIC&#47;HEIF to JPG&#8221;)</p>

<p>for f in &#8220;$@&#8221;
do
&#47;opt&#47;homebrew&#47;bin&#47;heif-convert &#8220;$f&#8221; &#8220;${f%.*}.jpg&#8221;
done</p></li>
</ol>

<h2 id="making-edits">Making Edits</h2>

<p>If you ever have the need to edit this script (for example, changing the default format to <code>png</code>), you will need to navigate to your <code>~&#47;Library&#47;Services</code> folder and open your custom heif Quick Action in the Automator application. </p>

<p>Simple as that. Happy converting!</p>

<p>If you&#8217;re interested, I also have some other Automator scripts available:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="/batch-webp-conversion/">Batch Converting Images to webp with macOS Automator</a></li>
<li><a href="/macos-convert-to-html/">Convert Files to HTML with macOS Automator Quick Actions</a></li>
</ul>
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