JPG, PNG, and WebP are three answers to the same question: how should this picture be stored? Each one is good at something different. Choosing well takes about ten seconds once you know what you are looking at, and it usually matters more than the quality setting you pick afterward.
The short version
| Format | Best for | Transparency | Typical file size |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG (.jpg) | Photographs, camera images, scanned photos | No | Small for photos |
| PNG (.png) | Screenshots, text, logos, flat graphics | Yes | Large for photos, efficient for graphics |
| WebP (.webp) | Modern web images, both photos and graphics | Yes | Often smallest overall |
If you only remember one line: use JPEG or WebP for photographs, PNG for anything with crisp edges or a transparent background.
JPEG: still the default for photographs
JPEG is a lossy format. It looks at an image in small blocks and stores an approximation, discarding detail that is less noticeable to human eyes. For photographs—which have smooth gradients, texture, and no perfectly straight edges—that trade-off is excellent. A large photo can become a small file without an obvious change at normal viewing size.
The format is also extraordinarily compatible. Every browser, phone, photo printer, and document tool can open a JPEG. If a file must work everywhere with no explanation, JPEG is the safe choice.
Its weaknesses are equally well known. It has no transparency. It is poor at sharp lines and text, where compression can create halos and blocky patches. And it is lossy at every save, so repeatedly editing and exporting the same JPEG gradually degrades it. Keep an original and export once.
PNG: clean edges and transparency
PNG is lossless. The image you save is the image you get back, pixel for pixel. That makes it the right choice for screenshots, diagrams, logos, icons, and interface graphics—content where crisp edges matter and where a lossy encoder tends to leave visible damage.
PNG also supports alpha transparency, which is what makes it useful for logos placed on colored backgrounds and for interface elements with soft shadows. The same lossless approach makes PNG a poor fit for photographs: a camera image stored as PNG can be several times larger than the equivalent JPEG with no visible benefit.
There is a common exception: a screenshot that is mostly a photograph. A full-screen photo viewer screenshot, for example, may be more efficient as JPEG. Judge the content, not the fact that it came from a screenshot.
WebP: the flexible middle
WebP was designed for the web and can operate in both lossy and lossless modes, with transparency in either. At comparable quality, a lossy WebP is often smaller than a JPEG, especially at lower quality settings. It supports animation too, though that is not relevant to still-image tools.
Browser support is now broad across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. The catch is the wider world of software: older desktop applications, some email clients, and a few content management systems may not accept a .webp file. If you are publishing to a modern website, WebP is a strong default. If you are sending an image to a person who will open it in an unfamiliar program, JPEG or PNG is the less risky choice.
Newer formats such as AVIF can be smaller still, but support is less universal and encoding is slower. For everyday work, the difference between a good WebP and an AVIF is rarely worth the compatibility questions.
The transparency trap
JPEG cannot store transparency. If you convert a PNG logo with a transparent background to JPEG, those areas have to become something. Most converters fill them with white. On a white page you may not notice; on a colored or photographic background, the logo arrives inside an obvious white box.
The fix is simple: keep PNG or WebP for anything that needs a cut-out background. If the final destination requires JPEG, place the logo on the exact background color first, then export. That produces a deliberate result instead of a white rectangle.
The reverse conversion—JPEG to PNG—does not create transparency. It only wraps the same opaque pixels in a lossless container, which usually makes the file larger without restoring any detail.
Choosing without overthinking
- Is it a photograph or a scan with continuous tones? Use JPEG, or WebP if it is for a modern website.
- Does it need transparency? Use PNG or WebP. Never JPEG.
- Does it contain text, sharp edges, or flat colors? Use PNG or lossless WebP. Lossy JPEG will make the edges look dirty.
- Will someone open it in unknown software? Prefer JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics. Compatibility beats a marginal size win.
- Is it already small? Leave it alone. Converting a 40 KB graphic to chase a 5 KB saving is usually not worth the risk of losing quality.
Once the format is chosen, resize the image to its display size and set a sensible quality. Our guide to compressing images for the web walks through the settings.
What conversion cannot fix
Conversion changes the container, not the information inside it. If a JPEG has already lost detail, saving it as PNG will not bring that detail back; it will simply preserve the damaged result in a larger file. If a PNG screenshot is full of anti-aliased text, converting it to JPEG may shrink it but will also introduce artifacts around the letters.
Always work from the best source available. Converting back and forth between formats is a common way to make an image worse while believing you are improving it.
The format converter handles JPG, PNG, and WebP in the browser. It keeps transparency when the destination supports it, fills JPEG backgrounds with white, and lets you set quality for lossy formats. PNG output is lossless. Re-encoding also removes embedded metadata such as camera details and GPS location. If you need that metadata, keep the original file.
Prefer to see it in action? Convert an image locally—no upload, no account.