Apple has broken new ground by switching to HEIF, but many users will be wondering how much they will actually benefit from the new container format. You just need to take a look at the possible usage scenarios where the properties of .heic files come into their own. Photography and image storage with smartphones and tablets as well as digital cameras are undoubtedly the top priorities. This is not only due to the small file size of the photos, but also the possibility of linking images and therefore saving image animations or compilations in a single container i.e. a single file. This way, HEIF not only serves as a space-saving format, but also optimally prepares the image content for further use (i.e. for sharing on social media).
In addition, the container format is especially suitable for image editing: without the need to re-encode, it’s possible to change the alignment, resize or crop images, and then save them in the same file as the original image. HEIF also offers plenty of potential for web development. On the one hand, web projects could benefit from the small file size of .heic images in the future, which would result in shorter loading times – provided that the browsers receive HEIF viewers to be able to play the image files back. On the other hand, the graphic format is tailor-made for the HTML5 element <picture>, which allows the webmaster to specify different sources for a certain image (the user’s browser decides which variant is to be requested later).