How to work with HEIC image file types in Python

Question

The High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format is the default when airdropping an image from an iPhone to a OSX device. I want to edit and modify these .HEIC files with Python.

Answer 1

I was quite successful with Wand package : Install Wand: https://docs.wand-py.org/en/0.6.4/ Code for conversion:

   from wand.image import Image
   import os

   SourceFolder="K:/HeicFolder"
   TargetFolder="K:/JpgFolder"

   for file in os.listdir(SourceFolder):
      SourceFile=SourceFolder + "/" + file
      TargetFile=TargetFolder + "/" + file.replace(".HEIC",".JPG")
    
      img=Image(filename=SourceFile)
      img.format='jpg'
      img.save(filename=TargetFile)
      img.close()

Answer 2

You guys should check out this library, it's a Python 3 wrapper to the libheif library, it should serve your purpose of file conversion, extracting metadata:

https://github.com/david-poirier-csn/pyheif

https://pypi.org/project/pyheif/

Example usage:

 import whatimage
 import pyheif
 from PIL import Image


 def decodeImage(bytesIo):

    fmt = whatimage.identify_image(bytesIo)
    if fmt in ['heic', 'avif']:
         i = pyheif.read_heif(bytesIo)

         # Extract metadata etc
         for metadata in i.metadata or []:
             if metadata['type']=='Exif':
                 # do whatever

         # Convert to other file format like jpeg
         s = io.BytesIO()
         pi = Image.frombytes(
                mode=i.mode, size=i.size, data=i.data)

         pi.save(s, format="jpeg")

  ...

Answer 3

This will do go get the exif data from the heic file

import pyheif
import exifread
import io

heif_file = pyheif.read_heif("file.heic")

for metadata in heif_file.metadata:

    if metadata['type'] == 'Exif':
        fstream = io.BytesIO(metadata['data'][6:])

    exifdata = exifread.process_file(fstream,details=False)

    # example to get device model from heic file
    model = str(exifdata.get("Image Model"))
    print(model)

Answer 4

Simple solution after going over multiple responses from people.
Please install whatimage, pyheif and PIL libraries before running this code.

---

[NOTE] : I used this command for install.

python3 -m pip install Pillow

Also using linux was lot easier to install all these libraries. I recommend WSL for windows.

---

• code

import whatimage
import pyheif
from PIL import Image
import os

def decodeImage(bytesIo, index):
    with open(bytesIo, 'rb') as f:
    data = f.read()
    fmt = whatimage.identify_image(data)
    if fmt in ['heic', 'avif']:
    i = pyheif.read_heif(data)
    pi = Image.frombytes(mode=i.mode, size=i.size, data=i.data)
    pi.save("new" + str(index) + ".jpg", format="jpeg")

# For my use I had my python file inside the same folder as the heic files
source = "./"

for index,file in enumerate(os.listdir(source)):
    decodeImage(file, index)

Answer 5

I am facing the exact same problem as you, wanting a CLI solution. Doing some further research, it seems ImageMagick requires the libheif delegate library. The libheif library itself seems to have some dependencies as well.

I have not had success in getting any of those to work as well, but will continue trying. I suggest you check if those dependencies are available to your configuration.

Answer 6

Adding to the answer by danial, i just had to modify the byte array slighly to get a valid datastream for further work. The first 6 bytes are 'Exif\x00\x00' .. dropping these will give you a raw format that you can pipe into any image processing tool.

import pyheif
import PIL
import exifread

def read_heic(path: str):
    with open(path, 'rb') as file:
        image = pyheif.read_heif(file)
        for metadata in image.metadata or []:
            if metadata['type'] == 'Exif':
                fstream = io.BytesIO(metadata['data'][6:])

    # now just convert to jpeg
    pi = PIL.Image.open(fstream)
    pi.save("file.jpg", "JPEG")

    # or do EXIF processing with exifread
    tags = exifread.process_file(fstream)

At least this worked for me.