Capture what’s on your iPhone or iPad screen in high-quality by enabling HDR screenshots and HDR10 screen recordings in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) screenshots and screen recordings can preserve rich colors with full dynamic range. It can capture more details and look better compared to regular SDR format, especially when you’re capturing something very fine on the screen or an interface with bright items on dark backgrounds.
While HDR capture is not necessary for everyday use, if you take screenshots or record your iOS device screen for using them in video projects or other professional work, then you’ll undoubtedly benefit from this new feature.
However, before you proceed, note that HDR screenshots are captured as HEIF images with the “.HEIC” extension, which may not be compatible with all iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows apps until you convert them. In comparison, SDR screenshots are saved in a universally compatible PNG format. When it comes to screen recordings, SDR format uses HEVC, while HDR uses HEVC HDR 10.
Secondly, in many cases, even though HDR screenshots capture more details, the overall file size may be smaller compared to an SDR screenshot of the same screen. This is because of the HEIF format, which takes up less space compared to PNG and JPG.
Finally, not all iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 devices can take HDR screenshots. For instance, you can update iPhone 11 to iOS 26, but it can’t take HDR screenshots as it doesn’t have an HDR display.
Take HDR screenshots and screen recordings on iPhone and iPad
- Open the Settings app on your device running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26.
- Tap General, followed by the new Screen Capture option.
- Select HDR under the Format heading.
Now, exit Settings and take a screenshot. Then, open this screenshot in the Photos app and swipe up on the screen or tap the info button ⓘ to see the file properties. You’ll notice that this image is saved as HEIF. SDR screenshots are saved as PNG.
Why I take HDR screenshots…
Later builds of iOS 18 completely messed up screenshots when capturing high-contrast content. For instance, if I were editing a picture in the Photos app and took a screenshot, it would blow out certain areas of the final capture. On a related note, initial versions of iOS 26 beta took really bad, over-saturated, and unusable screenshots when the format was set to SDR.
Switching to HDR has solved this issue. Additionally, I appreciate having my screenshots take up reduced space, a feature that HEIF offers compared to SDR PNG screenshots.
Also, check out: 18 settings to change and new features to try in iOS 26