Convert High Dynamic Range images (HDR) online for free
The converter easily converts your HDR images to various formats - free and online. No Radiance or other Raster Image software needed.
The converter also works in reverse, so you can convert other "High Dynamic Range Image" formats to HDR without using software like Radiance or a similar tool.
The .HDR file is primarily a High Dynamic Range image file format originally created for the Radiance lighting simulation system. Unlike standard images, .HDR files store 32-bit floating-point data per channel using RGBE encoding (Red, Green, Blue, Exponent). This allows them to capture real-world lighting environments and extreme differences between the darkest and brightest areas of a scene. They are widely used in 3D rendering software like Blender and Autodesk Maya to provide realistic environmental lighting (HDRI).
However, the .HDR format has major practical disadvantages. The files are extremely large and entirely unsupported by standard web browsers or basic desktop image viewers. Sharing an .HDR file via email or chat usually frustrates the recipient, as they need heavy, expensive software like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo just to open it. Furthermore, displaying this format on standard 8-bit monitors requires specialized tone-mapping to compress the massive light data into a viewable spectrum.
To share or view these images easily, conversion is required. For web publishing or social media, convert .HDR to WEBP or JPG (note that tone-mapping will compress the lighting data into a standard visual range). For professional print or lossless archiving, convert to a 16-bit TIFF. If you are migrating 3D assets, EXR is often preferred by modern game engines.
*Note: The .HDR extension is also used as a plain-text header file for ENVI geospatial raster images, medical imaging formats (Analyze 7.5), and TESCAN microscope data. If your file is only a few kilobytes, it is likely a header describing an accompanying data file.*
Drop your file here to view and convert it securely right in your browser.
Use Convert.Guru to open and convert your HDR file.
Users also converted MOV, MP4, JPEG, JPG, PNG, MKV, JXR, EXR, WEBM, HEIC, HDF, SEM and MPEG files.
If you want to convert HDR file to SDR, MP4, SHP, KML, KMZ, GPX, GEOJSON or TOPOJSON, you can use Radiance or similar software from the "High Dynamic Range Imaging" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert LAZ, KMZ, DTM, CSV, DEM, PRJ, LAS, GPX, DSM, SHP, DBF or KML files to HDR, try Radiance or another comparable tool in the "High Dynamic Range Imaging" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HDR converter.