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Displaying Apple HEIF Photos on the Web

A quick guide to converting iPhone HEIF photos for web display

This tutorial requires using the Mac terminal.

Format Conversion​

# Width 1920px, quality 80%, suitable for most websites
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do
  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
    sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 --resampleWidth 1920 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg"
    echo "Converted: ${file%.*}.jpg"
  fi
done
  • File size: Typically 200KB-800KB
  • Use case: Blogs, portfolios, photo galleries
  • Load speed: Good

High Compression (Fast Loading)​

# Width 1280px, quality 75%, smaller files
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do
  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
    sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 75 --resampleWidth 1280 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg"
    echo "Converted: ${file%.*}.jpg"
  fi
done
  • File size: Typically 100KB-400KB
  • Use case: Mobile-first sites, slow network regions

High Quality (Visual Priority)​

# Width 2560px, quality 85%, better visual quality
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do
  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
    sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 85 --resampleWidth 2560 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg"
    echo "Converted: ${file%.*}.jpg"
  fi
done
  • File size: Typically 500KB-1.5MB
  • Use case: Photography showcases, premium sites

One-Liner Versions (Quick Use)​

# Standard preset
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 --resampleWidth 1920 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}.jpg"; done

# High compression preset
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 75 --resampleWidth 1280 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}.jpg"; done

Batch Renaming​

Basic Renaming​

# Append identifier to filename (no separator)
for file in *.jpg; do
  mv "$file" "${file%.*}LocationName.jpg"
  echo "Renamed: $file -> ${file%.*}LocationName.jpg"
done

# Append identifier to filename (with underscore separator)
for file in *.jpg; do
  mv "$file" "${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg"
  echo "Renamed: $file -> ${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg"
done

One-Liner Versions​

# No separator
for file in *.jpg; do mv "$file" "${file%.*}LocationName.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}LocationName.jpg"; done

# With underscore separator
for file in *.jpg; do mv "$file" "${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg"; done

Safe Preview Version​

# Preview the rename operations first
for file in *.jpg; do echo "Will rename: $file -> ${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg"; done

# Execute after confirming
for file in *.jpg; do mv "$file" "${file%.*}_LocationName.jpg"; done

Complete Workflow​

# Step 1: Convert format
for file in *.HEIC *.heic; do sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 --resampleWidth 1920 "$file" --out "${file%.*}.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}.jpg"; done

# Step 2: Rename
for file in *.jpg; do mv "$file" "${file%.*}_JiuzhaiValley.jpg" && echo "Done: ${file%.*}_JiuzhaiValley.jpg"; done