What happens to transparent areas in the PSD?

PSD (Photoshop Document) is Adobe Photoshop's native project format. PSD files can contain dozens of layers, adjustment layers, smart objects, masks, and other Photoshop-specific data. When converting PSD to HEIC, all layers are flattened into a single composite image before HEVC compression is applied - And because HEIC supports an alpha channel, any transparency in the composition can be preserved rather than flattened to white.

Converting PSD to HEIC suits Apple-centric delivery: edit in Photoshop with full layer flexibility, then export a compressed, storage-efficient snapshot for an Apple Photos library, iOS asset pipeline, or iCloud archive. The HEIC is roughly half the size an equivalent-quality JPG export would be. For web delivery or mixed-platform clients, JPG or PNG remains the safer target since HEIC will not display in browsers.

Reasons to convert PSD to HEIC usually come down to compatibility, file-size, or specific feature requirements. Common situations:

• An app or platform only accepts HEIC uploads.
• You need a feature unique to HEIC (e.g. transparency, vector scaling, animation, multi-page pages, etc.) that PSD doesn't provide.
• You're optimising file size — modern formats often produce smaller files than the older format you started with.
• You need a single archival format across a project so files behave consistently in the same viewer.

1. Open the PSD → HEIC tool on heic.now.
2. Drag your PSD file onto the drop zone, or click Select files. You can drop a whole folder of files at once.
3. The output is fixed to HEIC. If the format supports extra options (page size, transparency background, quality, EXIF stripping), tweak them in the right-hand panel.
4. Click Convert. The job runs on our server and finishes in a few seconds for typical photos.
5. Download the result. Files stay in storage for 24 hours and are then permanently deleted.

The entire flow is free for the first 10 jobs per day with no signup required. A free account doubles that quota; a premium plan removes the limit entirely.

• Keep the original PSD file - Once flattened to HEIC, the individual layers are permanently merged and cannot be recovered.
• Use quality 88–92% for professional PSD-to-HEIC exports to preserve retouching and colour grading work.
• If your PSD uses a wide-gamut colour profile (ProPhoto, Adobe RGB), HEIC's 10-bit and Display P3 support handles wide gamuts far better than an 8-bit sRGB JPG - But still check the output colours if colour accuracy is critical.