Batch Saving/Exporting as .HEIC after editing .HEIC in Photoshop

[Jeremy27407416o6l4]

Hello everyone,

I need help with editing/saving .HEIC files in Photoshop on macOS.

As you may know, it's possible to open and edit .HEIC images, but there's no way to save or export them back as .HEIC using Photoshop 

I'm doing a very specific task where I need to blur some parts of .HEIC images and save a copy of the same quality/size & preserve EXIF metadata in .HEIC. Any other output format won't be accepted!

So after making the initial edits my only option (I suppose) is to save the file as highest possible quality .JPEG (since .PNG doesn't include EXIF data). File size usually increases 3-4 times, but I suppose it's because of a different compression method or something:

What are my options from there?

I know I can just open that .jpg in Preview App and export it as .HEIC:

And it basically becomes the same as an original .HEIC (more or less same size, visual quality, preserved EXIF), but it takes really long time.

Especially because I need to manually choose the location of each file every single time I Export using Preview App. And I have thousands of those files!

I didn't find any app, script, or tool that can help automate/batch this process. All the software available works only one way - ".HEIC to .JPG", but I'm looking for ".JPG to .HEIC". There is one paid app in the App Store, but it doesn't save an EXIF data (is it even possible at this point?)

I know that macOS has Automator utility that can help "Change an image file type", but there's no .HEIC in it:

So are some sort of Online converters my only option at this point? I still will have to manually upload photo by photo there, then download it all and manually sort it by folders. Or is there any other solution here?

I was shocked that there was no way to export .HEIC directly from Photoshop in 2022, even on macOS... Maybe there's some sort of script for Photoshop that can do it? Oh... dreams...

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Mac Preview App allows you to export to HEIC.

[Jeremy27407416o6l4]

Yes, thank you, Kevin - I also mentioned it in my initial post.

But when you're working with thousands of files (all in different subfolders) it becomes incredibly difficult to do it one by one. I have to select the original subfolder every time I export a file through Preview App.

I mean, I understand that I can just "Command+F" an entire folder, search for ".jpg" files, select all of them and open with Preview App, and export as .heic. But then I will have to Export All of them in one single folder, which means that I will have to search for the original subfolder for each file and manually drag the .heic into them...

Is there really no other way around it?

Thanks!

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

I'm sure someone with Apple or Javascripting could automate that using Preview as the engine. Preview would work as you said except you are looking to save in various locations. The subfolder location wasn't clear originally sorry.

It's also honestly odd that your project requires HEIC which is Apple proprietary and limited in usage.

[Jeremy27407416o6l4]

It's also honestly odd that your project requires HEIC which is Apple proprietary and limited in usage.

I know, it's because the end client of this entire outsourcing chain is Apple.

I've tried providing them same quality .JPEGs, but they were sent back with the .HEIC requirement.

But there's no workaround provided for this type of conversion...

I'm sure someone with Apple or Javascripting could automate that using Preview as the engine.

As far as I know (I might be wrong) Preview App doesn't "connect" with JavaScript. 

Maybe there's a way to implement Automator with Preview App somehow? That's my only hope for now.

[Stephen Marsh]

I tried on Monterey, even with Automator and the new Shortcuts it's a mess, the file format is supported as HEIF but it error's when attempting to save to multiple input directories in a single run.

SIPs doesn't support the format.

I'd be surprised if the latest Ventura was any better, but one can hope.

This leaves AppleScript or 3rd party apps which are mostly geared around HEIC to JPEG, not the other way.

[Jeremy27407416o6l4]

Yeah, might as well mention that I'm on the older macOS Mojave.
Makes sense that I'm unable to use an automaton to convert files into .HEIC!

Also, I have Photoshop 2021, because I can't install a newer version until I update OS, but I don't want to do it since my MacBook is a bit old. 

But as far as I know, even 2023 version of Photoshop doesn't support "Save as .HEIC"...

- - - -

So for now, I've found an answer somewhere between those lines:

I mean, I understand that I can just "Command+F" an entire folder, search for ".jpg" files, select all of them and open with Preview App, and export as .heic. But then I will have to Export All of them in one single folder, which means that I will have to search for the original subfolder for each file and manually drag the .heic into them...

I separate files into equal portions, like 10-20 subfolders per folder:

Then I rename them according to subfolder names (using Name Mangler app):

Then I edit them in Photoshop with my Action Script for blurring and the .jsx script that you helped me with.

Thanks again! It saved an edited version in the same folder as .JPG with "_" prefix:

Then I "Command+F" the parent folder with those 10-20 subfolders for .JPGs and open all of them in Preview App. Go "File -> Export to .HEIC" and export them into the parent folder:

And lastly, all I have to do is drag & drop the files (that's why I renamed them in the beginning) to the folders with the same name and search-delete all the remaining .JPGs. Maybe can automate something here as well? I'm not sure if it's possible to move files to the subfolders that have similar names?..

I suppose this is as fast as you can go in this situation due to certain requirements & limitations.

But I'm still open to any suggestions and ideas!

I will have to do the same with the .MOV files, except I will be blurring them in Premiere Pro...

I hope I'll figure out a way to fast batch-render those videos there as well without losing any quality.

[Gaël Dauchy]

Bonjour,

Vous pouvez utiliser Raccourci d'apple, en cherchant un peu j'ai pu créer un système d'export d'un format vers un autre. Pour votre usage je vous recommande de tout exporter en tiff (le png est pertinent avec les tables de couleurs), puis d'exporter la sélection avec le raccourci vers Heic. Ça fonctionne pour des images au delà de 20000*20000px et cet heic est meilleur que celui d'Aperçu.

Photoshop ne permet pas d'exporter en Heic, qui est le format de l'avenir, c'est ridicule qu'il ne soit pas déjà dessus.

Bien à vous.

[Adrian29121152tz43]

As of macOS Sequoia Automator is able to batch convert JXL or any HDR image format into HEIC for Photos app compatibility.

Open automator and create a script:

- Get Selected Finder Items

- Duplicate Finder Items (Optional, if you do not want to loose original files)

- Change Type of Images -> To type: heic

Select files in Finder and run Automator script.