Each format is good at different things. Here is a plain guide to choosing between JPG, PNG and WebP for photos, graphics and websites.
Picking the right image format affects how sharp your images look and how quickly your pages load. JPG, PNG and WebP are the three formats you will meet most often on the web, and each one is good at different things.
JPG: best for photos
JPG (or JPEG) uses lossy compression. It throws away detail your eyes are unlikely to notice, which makes photos dramatically smaller. That makes JPG the long-standing default for photographs.
- Use it for: photos and images with smooth colour gradients.
- Avoid it for: logos, screenshots with text, and anything that needs transparency.
Each time a JPG is edited and saved again, it loses a little more quality, so keep an original copy.
PNG: best for graphics and transparency
PNG is lossless: every pixel is kept exactly. It supports transparent backgrounds and keeps text and sharp edges crisp. The downside is size. A photo saved as PNG is often several times bigger than the same photo as JPG.
- Use it for: logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams and images that need transparency.
- Avoid it for: large photographs on websites.
WebP: smaller files for the web
WebP was designed for websites. It supports both lossy and lossless compression as well as transparency, and its files are usually 25–35% smaller than JPG or PNG at similar quality. Every current major browser can display it.
- Use it for: almost any image on a modern website.
- Avoid it for: files you send to people or apps that may not open WebP, such as some older desktop software.
A quick rule of thumb
- Photo for a website: WebP, with JPG as the safe fallback.
- Logo or graphic with transparency: PNG, or WebP for the web.
- Image to email or print: JPG or PNG.
You can switch between these formats in seconds with our WebP Converter, JPG to PNG and PNG to JPG tools.