Extract text from HEIC with OCR on Mac.

Local file processing, by renaming the file in Finder. No converter window and no upload queue.

Finder rename

report.heicreport.txt

How the rename works

  1. 1

    Start with report.heic

    Put the HEIC file in a folder RenameTo watches, such as Desktop or Downloads.

  2. 2

    Rename it to report.txt

    In Finder, change .heic to .txt, then press Return. The rename is the command.

  3. 3

    Find the TXT beside it

    RenameTo produces the requested output and keeps a restorable backup of the original.

What happens under the hood

Apple Vision reads the HEIC locally and writes the recognized text as TXT. The source file is not uploaded for OCR.

About the formats

HEIC is Apple's space-efficient camera format, which some apps still reject. TXT is plain text with near-universal compatibility.

Questions, answered

Does my file get uploaded anywhere?

No. File processing happens on your Mac. RenameTo does use the network for license validation, trial activation, and update checks, but your source files are not part of those requests.

What happens to the original HEIC file?

RenameTo keeps a backup before processing. Undo restores the original alongside a format-changing output and does not delete that output. If the original name is already occupied, the restored copy gets “(restored)” in its name.

Can I convert a whole folder?

Yes. Rename multiple selected files in Finder and RenameTo queues each supported conversion, with a separate result and backup for every file.

Can I run the same conversion from a script?

Yes. The CLI command is: renameto txt *.heic

Related conversions

Convert HEIC to AVIF

report.heic → report.avif

Convert HEIC to BMP

report.heic → report.bmp

Convert HEIC to GIF

report.heic → report.gif

Convert HEIC to ICNS

report.heic → report.icns

Transcribe 3GP to text

report.3gp → report.txt

Transcribe AAC to text

report.aac → report.txt

Transcribe AC3 to text

report.ac3 → report.txt

Transcribe AIFF to text

report.aiff → report.txt

Looking for another format? Browse every conversion.