The built-in Preview app in macOS is a lot more than just an image-viewing tool. For example, did you know it can help you convert and export almost any image to a different format? It works between PNG, JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, and even PDF.
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, it’s worth highlighting that Preview supports Apple’s new HEIC format. If you’ve transferred photos from your iPhone or iPad to Mac only to discover they’re in the HEIC format, you can import them into Preview and batch export them as JPEG, so you can easily share them with your friends online.
RELATED: How to Convert HEIC Images to JPG on a Mac the Easy Way
Here’s how the conversion process in Preview works. To begin, locate the image in the Finder app. You can select a single image or multiple images. Then simply double-click on the selected files to open them in the Preview app.
If Preview is not set as your default app for opening image files, right-click on the image and select Open With > Preview.
After opening the image in Preview, go to the top menu bar and click on “File.” From here, select “Export.”
If you want to do this process for multiple images, choose “Command+A” to select all open images in a single Preview window.
From the pop-up, you can select the folder where you want to export the image and the format of your choice. You can change the name of the image file from the “Export As” field.
After selecting the destination folder, click on the drop-down next to “Format.”
Here, choose the format you want to convert to.
Once you select the new format, you’ll see some contextual options below.
For the JPEG and HEIC formats, you can edit the quality of the exported image. For the PDF option, you can add password protection. And for the TIFF format, you can choose between three different compression formats.
Once you’ve selected your options, click on the “Save” button. The image will be saved in the destination folder.
You can now delete the original image file if you want.
With your knowledge of how this feature works, you can repeat it to convert other images to various formats.
RELATED: Use Your Mac’s Preview App to Crop, Resize, Rotate, and Edit Images