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# Front-desk notes: adoption photos that arrived as empty tiles on the clinic PC

By [sam lee (@saml)](https://listium.com/@saml)

4 views · 0 likes · 0 followers  
Published 11 November 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026

Category: pets / animal welfare

The clinic's front-desk computer runs Windows. The volunteers who photograph the animals use iPhones. For two weeks in a row, the adoption-board JPGs we thought we had received were actually HEIC files, and the waiting-room PC opened them as blank tiles. We stopped emailing "can you export that again?" and started converting the files in the browser, on the same machine that prints the cards, without sending the photos out of the building. The originals stay in an "as sent" folder. Converted files are named with the kennel ID. We proof the print on the actual cork board, not only on the monitor. Photos that are really a hallway, a shoe, or three animals at once go back to the photographer instead of being forced onto the board.

## Items

### 1. [heic to jpg converter](https://listium.com/@saml/152097/front-desk-notes-adoption-photos-that-arrived-as-empty-tiles-on-the-clinic-pc/0/heic-to-jpg-converter)

Item ID: `0`

- Link: Link
- Notes: Official tool the front desk actually kept: convert the iPhone stills in the browser, on the clinic PC, without sending the photos out of the building.

### 2. [Keep an 'as sent' folder and never overwrite it](https://listium.com/@saml/152097/front-desk-notes-adoption-photos-that-arrived-as-empty-tiles-on-the-clinic-pc/2/keep-an-as-sent-folder-and-never-overwrite-it)

Item ID: `2`

- Link: -
- Notes: The iPhone originals stay in their own folder. If a card needs a brighter version later, we still have the file that arrived, not a flattened leftover.

### 3. [Name converted files with the kennel ID](https://listium.com/@saml/152097/front-desk-notes-adoption-photos-that-arrived-as-empty-tiles-on-the-clinic-pc/3/name-converted-files-with-the-kennel-id)

Item ID: `3`

- Link: -
- Notes: IMG\\\_3041 is how we lose a cat's card overnight. The JPG that goes to the printer is named with the kennel ID and the date it was converted.

### 4. [Proof the print on the actual cork board](https://listium.com/@saml/152097/front-desk-notes-adoption-photos-that-arrived-as-empty-tiles-on-the-clinic-pc/4/proof-the-print-on-the-actual-cork-board)

Item ID: `4`

- Link: -
- Notes: A face that looks fine on the front-desk monitor can go muddy or crop oddly once it is pinned under waiting-room light. We tape a proof to the board before we print the set.

### 5. [Send hallway and group-shot leftovers back](https://listium.com/@saml/152097/front-desk-notes-adoption-photos-that-arrived-as-empty-tiles-on-the-clinic-pc/5/send-hallway-and-group-shot-leftovers-back)

Item ID: `5`

- Link: -
- Notes: A conversion step will not turn a picture of three animals plus a mop into an adoption card. Those files go back to the volunteer with a specific request: one animal, one subject, a little air around the ears.