HDR to JPG Converter
Turn a Radiance .hdr file, the floating-point panorama 3D artists light their scenes with, into an ordinary JPG you can preview in a file browser, post in a portfolio or send to a client who has no HDR software.
Image Converter
or drop JPG, JPEG, JPE … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
85 keeps photos visually identical to the original. Lower it only when you need a smaller file.
JPG, BMP and EPS have no transparency. Transparent pixels are filled with this color.
Hex color used behind transparent pixels, e.g. #FFFFFF.
This format holds a single image. Choose GIF or WebP output if you want to keep the animation.
A multi-size icon contains several resolutions in one file; browsers and operating systems pick the one they need.
Keep the original dimensions, or enter one side and the aspect ratio is kept.
Pixels for the side you chose above.
Percentage of the original dimensions.
sRGB is right for screens and the web. Keep the original for print workflows; grayscale discards color.
Metadata only, 0 keeps the original value. Printers and some portals read this number; it does not change pixel dimensions.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the .hdr files
Drop one or more Radiance HDR images, up to 20 at a time and 95 MB each. Equirectangular HDRIs, light probes and HDR renders all work.
- 2
Check JPG quality
Quality starts at 90, a good level for wide panoramas with soft skies. Use Resize output image under Advanced settings if you only need a small preview.
- 3
Convert and download
Press Convert to JPG and save each file, or the whole set as a ZIP.
Upload a .hdr file and press Convert to JPG: the floating-point light values are mapped to an 8-bit sRGB picture that every viewer, browser and phone can open.
What a Radiance .hdr file is
The format comes from Radiance, the lighting simulation software Greg Ward began at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the mid-1980s. Its RGBE encoding, described by Ward in Graphics Gems II in 1991, stores each pixel as three 8-bit mantissas plus one shared 8-bit exponent. That fits a range from deep shadow to direct sunlight into 32 bits per pixel, which is why the format became the default for HDRI environment maps.
Today you meet .hdr files as equirectangular panoramas in 2:1 shape, downloaded from libraries such as Poly Haven, captured with bracketed 360° cameras, or rendered from Blender, 3ds Max and similar tools. They have no alpha channel and no layers, which sets them apart from OpenEXR; for multi-pass renders and transparency, use EXR to PNG instead.
1024 × 512 px
1K HDRI
Thumbnail and quick look-dev
2048 × 1024 px
2K HDRI
Ideal size for a JPG preview
4096 × 2048 px
4K HDRI
Common download, usually fits under 95 MB
8192 × 4096 px
8K HDRI
Often near or above the 95 MB limit
HDR
Radiance HDR
The .hdr format (Radiance RGBE) was created by Greg Ward for the Radiance lighting simulation system. It stores high-dynamic-range images using a shared exponent per pixel, which captures a huge brightness range in a compact file. It is widely used for HDRI environment maps that light 3D scenes in Blender, Unreal and other tools. It has no transparency, and normal viewers and browsers show it incorrectly or not at all.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- No
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- Greg Ward (Radiance)
JPG
JPEG image
JPEG (or JPG) is the most widely used photo format, standardised by the Joint Photographic Experts Group in 1992. It uses lossy compression that discards fine detail the eye is unlikely to notice, which keeps photos small enough for the web, email and phone storage. It handles smooth gradients and natural scenes well, but sharp text, line art and flat colours pick up visible blocky or fuzzy artefacts. JPEG has no transparency and no animation, and every re-save loses a little more quality. Every browser, phone, camera and image editor can open it.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- No
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1992 · Joint Photographic Experts Group
A Radiance .hdr carries light values far beyond what a screen shows, and almost nothing outside 3D software opens it, so artists make JPG copies of their HDRIs and renders for previews, catalogs and client review.
HDR to JPG: from floating-point light to 8-bit color
A JPG holds 256 levels per channel between black and white. An HDRI holds values far above white: a clear sky might sit around 1 to 3, while the sun disc can reach thousands. Converting means choosing where white lands. This page maps the linear values straight to sRGB, so mid-tones and sky look natural while anything brighter than white, like the sun or a lamp filament, clips to pure white.
There is no exposure slider, so if a panorama comes out too dark or too bright, adjust exposure in your 3D or HDR editor, save a new .hdr and convert that. For catalogs and web galleries, set Resize output image to a width of 2048 px and keep quality between 85 and 90; the image converter covers WebP and AVIF if your site prefers those.
What the JPG keeps and what it loses
The JPG gives you
- A file every phone, browser and file manager previews
- The full 2:1 panorama, ready for a 360° viewer
- A size measured in megabytes, not tens of megabytes
The JPG gives up
- All light values above white
- Use as a real lighting source in a renderer
- Lossless storage; JPG adds slight compression artifacts
HDR to JPG questions
Why does the JPG look different from the HDRI in Blender?
Blender shows an HDRI through a view transform (Filmic, or AgX since Blender 4.0) and your exposure setting, which compress bright values gracefully. The converter makes a direct 8-bit sRGB image instead, so skies can look brighter or more contrasty than in the viewport, and very bright areas clip to white.
Is an .hdr file the same as an HDR photo from my phone?
No. A phone's HDR photo is a normal JPG or HEIC whose camera merged several exposures, sometimes with extra brightness data for HDR screens. A Radiance .hdr stores real floating-point light values per pixel and is used for lighting 3D scenes and image-based lighting.
Can I use the converted JPG to light a 3D scene?
It will show up as a background, but every value above white is gone, so the sun no longer casts strong light or crisp shadows and reflections look flat. Keep the .hdr for lighting and use the JPG for previews, thumbnails and backplates.
My 8K HDRI is larger than 95 MB. What should I do?
Download the 2K or 4K version of the same HDRI instead; asset sites such as Poly Haven offer several resolutions. A JPG preview at 2048 × 1024 is plenty for a catalog or a client review, and smaller .hdr files convert much faster.
Why is the JPG so much smaller than the .hdr?
Radiance HDR spends 32 bits on every pixel with only simple run-length compression, while a JPG at quality 90 uses 8 bits per channel and lossy compression. A 4K panorama of tens of megabytes typically becomes a JPG of a few megabytes.
