Choosing the wrong image format makes your photos too heavy, gives a logo blurry edges or slows down a web page. Here's the short guide.
JPG: for photographs
JPG compresses images heavily by discarding details you barely notice. It's ideal for photos, because it produces small files and any device can open it. Its limits: it doesn't support transparency and, if you save it many times, it loses quality.
PNG: for graphics, screenshots and transparency
PNG doesn't lose information. It's the best choice for logos, screenshots, text over images and illustrations, and it's the one to use when you need a transparent background. For photos, its files are usually much larger than a JPG.
WebP: for the web
WebP is a modern format that supports both lossy and lossless compression, and transparency too. At comparable visual quality, it's usually 25% to 35% smaller than a JPG. It works in all current browsers, which makes it a good choice for web pages and online stores. Its weak point is that some older editing programs can't open it.
Quick comparison
| JPG | PNG | WebP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photographs | Excellent | Heavy | Excellent |
| Logos and text | Fair | Excellent | Excellent |
| Transparency | No | Yes | Yes |
| File size | Low | High | Lowest |
| Compatibility | Universal | Universal | Modern browsers |
When it makes sense to convert
- To publish on a website, convert your photos to WebP: your site will load faster.
- To send by email or messaging, use JPG and reduce the width to about 1920 pixels; a phone photo gets much lighter without looking worse on screen.
- For a logo with a transparent background, save as PNG or WebP; avoid converting it to JPG, because the background turns white.
- For online procedures that ask for a specific format, convert with Convert images, which also lets you adjust the quality and size.
A common mistake
Converting a JPG to PNG doesn't improve its quality: the file just gets bigger, because the information lost in compression doesn't come back. Only convert when you need the advantages of the new format.
If what you need is to put several images into one document, check out the images to PDF tool.