HEIC images converted to .jpg appear rotated 180° when imported/placed (MacOs)

[dickkirkland]

Hello Illustrators!

I've come across a problem where I had to change the color profile of Apple's proprietary .HEIC files to CMYK .jpg(s) and then place these .jpg files into Illustrator. The CMYK color conversion for the images is for a piece that's being printed on an offset press.

I'm working on a Mac. Apple devices/computers store these as a .HEIC format within iCloud and in the "Photos" desktop application. In the past, I've shot photos on my iPhone and then they are available from iCloud in the Photos app. I usually export the .HEIC files as "unmodified" to retain the highest resolution and then manipulate them in Photoshop for the right quality, resolution, etc., finally saving these files as high quality .jpgs.

The recent weirdness that occurs is that when the .HEIC files are converted to CMYK and saved as .jpg(s).

When I "Place" these images into Illustrator they consistently appear flipped, 180°, or in one case 45°.

In order to have the photos present in the correct orientation, I have used the "Edit in Photoshop" option in the "Links" palette, rotating them to be upside down or the opposite from how they should appear in Ai. After I save the rotated images in Ps, and then go back to Ai, the photos present normally, whereas in apps like Ps and MacOs' "Preview" they are the opposite or upside down when viewed in these apps.

I can import .HEIC photos into Illustraor v. 28.2, latest version in the date of this post which is great. Unfortunately the output isn't for the web and the images have to be CMYK for print vs. RGB which .HEIC files are natively.

I have tried a variety of methods to to correctly convert the images to present in their original intended orientation.

I've rotated the .HEICs from the outset before opening them into Ps with the Apple's basic Preview app.

I've tried manipulating them with Camera Raw within Ps, but there I've found no option to convert the color mode to CMYK. I'm wondering if there's a piece of metadata in the native .HEIC files that Ai doesn't understand for orientation after these are saved as .jpg. I've seen cases of the issue in web development but not for print when searching.

If anyone has any experience or advice on this, I'd appreciate hearing from you. HEIC support is relatively new I think for Adobe but this could be incorrect. Also, there's the issue when you inadvertently take a photo on your iPhone that is the wrong orientation, but this isn't the case for me here.

More on .HEIC files from Adobe

Thanks in advance.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @dickkirkland,

Sorry to hear about your experience. I tried replicating this on my end but was unable to do so. To better investigate this and check with the team, would you mind sharing some more details, like your exact workflow details, a sample file (https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/share-your-files-in-6-simple-steps/td-p/12967...), and a screen recording of the problem (https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/screen-record-an-issue-on-windows-amp-macos-f...)?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Richardbis]

We had a customer send us their files and the file rotated when it updated the link

I opened the file and saved it as a PSD file and brought it back in and it was fine.

I tried placing the HEIC file again in a new window and when I did it showed a rotation on the image.

That was just me placing it. This job had a tone of images that were all png, jpg, ai files but this was the only HEIC file.

I suggested that the customer never use them again but would love to know why it is doing it.

[dickkirkland]

@Richardbis"but would love to know why it is doing it" Same here. Seems like this is becoming a new standard file format in other disciplines, professional photography & maybe video too. As iOs cameras are so prevalent, designers can usually take these straight off of their Macs and they look so good. Hoping to see Adobe provide a solution soon.