If you are looking for a free HEIC viewer for your Windows or Mac machine, our post below lists some of the best viewer apps for you to view HEIC files on your computers. Read on to find out all the HEIC viewer apps.
While JPG, PNG, and many other image formats are widely supported on most desktop platforms and almost all the image viewers can open them, the same does not hold true for the HEIC images. Ever since Apple made HEIC as the default image format on its devices, people have constantly been looking for apps that can let them view this file type.
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Fortunately, we have some HEIC viewers that should allow you to open this file format on both your Windows PCs and Mac machines. These HEIC viewers for Mac and Windows will easily open any file that ends with .heic extension. Let’s check these apps out in the following post.
Top 5 Free HEIC Viewer for Windows and Mac Review
1. iMobie HEIC Converter
HEIC Viewer #1 – AnyGet HEIC Viewer
If you want something that acts as both – a Windows and Mac HEIC viewer – iMobie HEIC Converter is the one for you. It is a web-based app that allows you to upload your HEIC files for them to be converted into the JPG format. Once the files are converted, they can be opened in any of the image viewers you have got on your machines.
The app is so great that it makes your hard-to-view HEIC files compatible with almost all the platforms out there. You would rarely find a device that does not support the JPG format.
Some of the features you get with the app are:
- Conversion to the most popular image format – JPG.
- Retain the quality of your image after conversion.
- Easy to upload your multiple HEIC files.
- Preserve the EXIF data for your images.
Here’s where it falls short:
- It does not let you view HEIC files without an Internet connection.
If you do not wish to install one more app just to view HEIC files on your computer, use AnyGet HEIC Viewer to view HEIC files without installing anything. It works right off your web browser.
2. Google Photos
Google Photos is a photo management service by Google that lets you upload and organize your photos on the web. The company knows users upload photos in various formats and so it has support for almost all the image formats out there including HEIC.
In order to use the service as a HEIC viewer, all you need to do is head over to their website and upload your HEIC photos. Soon as the photos are uploaded, you will be able to view them like any other images.
The pros of the app are:
- Bulk upload your HEIC files.
- It works on mobile devices as well.
- It provides 15GB of free storage.
The service has the following disadvantages as well:
- You need to pay if you exceed your free storage limit.
- It will not work without the Internet.
If you want access to your HEIC files on your smartphones as well, then Google Photos is an ideal solution for you.
3. Dropbox
HEIC Viewer #3 – Dropbox
Dropbox is yet another service where people upload and share their files including HEIC files. Keeping the users’ needs in mind, the service now allows you to view HEIC files on your Windows and Mac machines right in the Dropbox app.
All the HEIC files that you upload in your Dropbox account instantly become viewable on all of your devices regardless of whether they have the HEIC support or not.
Here’s what it has to offer you:
- Instantly view HEIC files on your computers.
- Works on both Windows and Mac machines.
Here are the cons of the service:
- It only offers 2GB of storage which runs out soon.
- If you do not mind paying a monthly fee to Dropbox for more storage space, Dropbox can be a good HEIC viewer for your Windows 10 and all of your other desktop machines.
4. HEIC to JPG
HEIC to JPG is yet another web-based app that lets you view your HEIC files by first converting them to a popular image format. All it requires you to do is go to their website, upload your files, and download the converted files to your computer.
It may not be an exact HEIC viewer but it gets the job done. Here are the advantages of using the app:
- It works right off the browser so you don’t need to install it
- It supports drag and drop.
Here are the disadvantages of using the app:
- You can only upload 50 files at a time.
- You may have privacy issues as you don’t know where your files go after they are uploaded.
If privacy is not a big concern for you, then HEIC to JPG is a worth-using app.
5. Phiewer Image Viewer
HEIC Viewer #5 – Phiewer Image Viewer
Image viewer apps are gradually adding support for the HEIC file format and Phiewer Image Viewer is one of the apps that has done it already. It supports viewing HEIC files by default and you can view your files with a few keystrokes using the app on your machine.
The following are the advantages of using the app:
- It has support for multiple image formats including HEIC.
- It lets you view EXIF data as well.
- You can view your HEIC files in a slideshow.
Disadvantages of the app are:
- It only works on Mac.
- The free version has limited features.
If you want an app with built-in support for HEIC, Phiewer Image Viewer is a good HEIC viewer for your Mac.
The Bottom Line
There may be a number of free HEIC viewers in the market but many of those come with ads and a lot of other items that clutter the interface. Our roundup above covers some of the nice HEIC viewers for you to view HEIC on your computers.
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Most free photo editors available on the App Store are quite basic, offering just a limited number of filters and allowing you to easily and quickly liven up your photos before posting them on social media.
But if you’re an aspiring or professional photographer, you probably need a more powerful app with a broader set of tools to use your creativity to the fullest. Besides, you probably use your Mac for photo editing because working on a large screen makes it possible to adjust the slightest details.
1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app)
Apple’s Photos app is included for free on all recently released Macs. It does a good job at organizing your photos, but its collection of photo enhancement tools leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, our selection of the best free programs for photo editing on Mac will help you choose the right app to suit all your creative needs.
2. Luminar (7 days trial)
Luminar is another full-featured photo editor that’s popular with both Mac and Windows users. It can work as a standalone app as well as a plugin for such popular programs as Apple Photos.
Luminar uses Artificial Intelligence to enable sophisticated yet quick photo enhancements. Among these AI features are Sky Enhancer, which adds more depth and detail to the sky in your photos while leaving other areas untouched; Accent AI, which analyzes a photo and automatically applies the best combination of different effects to enhance your image; and Sun Rays, which allows you to place an artificial sun and adjust the lighting to your liking or make the sun rays already in your photo look even more incredible.
Luminar has over 60 filters you can apply to your photos to enhance them in a moment. Luminar also provides a set of powerful tools for cropping, transforming, cloning, erasing, and stamping, along with layers, brushes, and many more incredible features. Luminar supports the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, making photo editing even more effortless and pleasing.
3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark)
Photolemur is a relative newcomer on the photo editing market but it has all the chances to win the favor of beginner photographers and hobbyists. Running on Artificial Intelligence, Photolemur is a completely automatic photo enhancer, meaning that it does all the editing for you in no time. It has the simplest interface, with only a few buttons and sliders to adjust the enhancement to your liking and view the before and after results.
All you need to do is choose a photo (or a few) that you want to improve, drag and drop or import them using the Import button, and let the program make enhancements. After it’s done, you can compare the edited version with the original image by using the before–after slider and, if you want, adjust the skin tone or even enlarge the eyes using additional sliders. Pretty easy, huh?
Photolemur also offers a number of impressive styles to touch up your photos and give them a sophisticated and professional look. With this app, you don’t need to stuff your head with photo editing nuances and terms. Just run Photolemur and watch the magic happen!
4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial)
Free Photo Viewer For Mac
As you probably can tell from the name, Aurora HDR is designed to help photographers enhance their HDR photos, making them even more detailed and beautiful. It’s an ideal tool for editing your photos, with an extensive collection of more than 20 tools including details, tone, mapping, color, glow, and vignette. Each tool has its unique selection of controls to adjust its effects.
Aurora HDR enables you to work with brushes, layers, and masks, and provides a number of automatic AI tools for recognizing and removing noise, enhancing colors, lighting, and details, improving clarity, and adding contrast to dull areas while leaving other areas untouched.
Aurora HDR does a great job dealing with difficult lighting situations and creating full-of-life images while being easy to use.
5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days)
Pixelmator is a photo enhancer beloved by many Mac users, as it offers a good combination of a modern and simple interface, the ability to work on multiple layers, and powerful features that take photo editing to a whole new level. With so many editing tools, brushes, and effects, you can enhance your photos to your liking. You can choose between two versions of Pixelmator – standard and pro – depending on your needs. The standard version is great for basic photo editing with its selection of essential tools and filters, while the pro version is packed with extra brushes, tools, and effects that let you push your creativity to new boundaries. You can decide which version is suitable for you according to what features you’re looking for in a photo editing app.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link)
Photoshop Elements isn’t as affordable as other photo enhancers for beginner photographers. But luckily there’s a trial version available, so you can check it out before deciding whether this app is worthy of your money. Photoshop Elements acquired many powerful features from Photoshop, only Elements is simplified for amateur photographers and enthusiasts. It includes a good number of effects and filters, plus automated editing options for improving lighting, color balance, and exposure, and even opening closed eyes and reducing the effects of camera shake.
In addition to all of these awesome features, Photoshop also offers editing modes for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. Beginners will probably prefer Quick mode, as it focuses on essential tools to quickly enhance your photos by improving color, lighting, and other basic settings. Guided mode provides intermediate users with step-by-step guidance with more professional features like artistic effects, skin tone correction, and background replacement. Expert mode gives you full access to the app’s really powerful editing features and is ideal for creating stunning images.
7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial)
Affinity Photo’s interface may seem overwhelming at first, especially for novices, but when you come to grips with it you’ll find that the app is just what you’ve been looking for. Its numerous professional tools, effects, and filters encourage you to get creative with your photos. Among the coolest features Affinity Photo has to offer is a before and after view to compare the original photo with its edited version.
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Affinity Photo works with 15 file types, including common ones like PDF, PSD, JPG, and GIF as well as some less popular ones. The app amazes with its abundance of basic and top-notch editing tools, allowing you to tweak your photos using all possible kinds of instruments. Affinity Photo allows you to edit HDR photos, apply artistic filters and effects, play with masks and layers, and create breathtaking compositions by combining several images in one. If you find its interface a bit much and are afraid of getting lost in all those advanced tools, you should probably look for something more suitable for your level. But Affinity Photo is worth mastering.
8. Google Photos
Google Photos is a popular cloud storage service for photos and videos. It can’t boast countless masterly tools like other photo enhancers that we review in this article, but it includes some fundamental features like filters, color adjustment sliders, and transformation tools.
Although Google Photos may not be that helpful when it comes to editing photos, it does a pretty good job at storing high-resolution images and videos with 15GB of free online storage, compared to iCloud’s mere 5GB (which you can upgrade to 50GB for a monthly fee). If you’re planning to go on a trip and take plenty of photos, then it might be smart to sign up for Google Photos to use that extra storage space when you come back.
9. PhotoScape X (Free)
A relatively new photo editing app, PhotoScape X has been gaining popularity with many Mac and PC users since its release in 2008. Its interface is simple but unconventional, with a number of tabs running along the top of the window. Each is responsible for a specific stage of editing. The Viewer tab allows you to browse and organize your photos. After you pick a photo, you can switch to the Editor tab, which includes a broad set of instruments, filters, and effects and a useful feature that enables you to compare the adjusted photo with the original.
The next tabs, including the Batch tab, mainly concentrate on editing and renaming multiple photos at once. The GIF tab allows you to easily create an animated GIF from a group of selected photos.
The downside of PhotoScape X is a lack of selection tools, so all changes are applied to the whole image rather than to a selected part.
10. Gimp (Free)
Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.
Gimp offers a vast collection of advanced tools that hardly any free photo editor can boast. It has numerous enhancement options such as clone and heal brushes, layers and channels, accurate selection tools, a number of transformation instruments, and, of course, color adjustment controls. Gimp is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing photos and is beloved by so many users for its price (free) and versatility. But if you can’t come to grips with Gimp’s interface, it may be worth paying some cash for a more user-friendly program.