JPG vs PNG vs WebP: Which Image Format Should You Use?
A clear guide to choosing between JPG, PNG and WebP for photos, logos, screenshots and websites, with real file size differences and the cases where each one wins.
Saving an image in the wrong format is one of the most common reasons for slow websites, blurry logos and email attachments that bounce. The good news: for 95 percent of situations, the right choice follows a few simple rules.
The short answer
- Photos: JPG for sharing and email, WebP for websites.
- Logos, icons, screenshots and anything with text: PNG, or WebP on websites.
- Anything that needs a transparent background: PNG or WebP. Never JPG.
Now the why.
JPG: built for photographs
JPG (or JPEG, the same thing) uses lossy compression designed around how human eyes see. It throws away fine detail and subtle color changes we barely notice, which works wonderfully for photos with smooth gradients, skies and skin tones. A 12-megapixel photo that would be 30 MB uncompressed becomes 2 to 4 MB.
Its weakness is sharp edges. Around text, lines and flat areas of color, JPG creates faint blocky or fuzzy “artifacts”. That is why screenshots and logos saved as JPG often look slightly dirty. JPG also has no transparency.
Every time you edit and re-save a JPG, it is compressed again and loses a little more quality. Keep the original and export a copy.
PNG: built for sharp graphics
PNG uses lossless compression: the image you open is pixel-for-pixel identical to what was saved. Text stays crisp, flat colors stay flat, and transparency is fully supported. This makes PNG the right format for logos, icons, diagrams, UI screenshots and images you will edit again.
The cost is size for photographs. A photo saved as PNG is typically five to ten times larger than the same photo as JPG, with no visible benefit. If your PNG is a photo, convert it with PNG to JPG and enjoy the smaller file.
WebP: the modern web format
WebP, developed by Google, does both jobs: lossy compression for photos and lossless for graphics, with transparency and even animation. In practice WebP files are about 25 to 35 percent smaller than JPG at the same visual quality, and lossless WebP is noticeably smaller than PNG.
All current browsers support WebP, so it is an excellent choice for images on websites. Outside the browser, support is still uneven: some older photo editors, office programs and upload forms do not accept it. That is why so many people search for how to open a .webp file they saved from the web. If that is you, WebP to PNG fixes it in a second.
Real numbers from a typical photo
For a typical 1920 × 1280 photo, these are representative sizes at visually similar quality:
- PNG: around 3 to 4 MB
- JPG at 85 percent quality: around 350 to 500 KB
- WebP at similar quality: around 230 to 350 KB
The exact numbers depend on the content: a photo of a clear sky compresses far better than a photo of leaves or gravel. But the ranking is consistent.
What about AVIF, HEIC and GIF?
- AVIF compresses even better than WebP and is supported by modern browsers. It is a good choice for websites with a fallback, but encoding is slow and tool support is still growing.
- HEIC is what iPhones use for photos. Great compression, poor compatibility outside Apple. See our guide on HEIC vs JPG.
- GIF is limited to 256 colors. Use it only for simple animations, and even then, a short video or animated WebP is usually smaller and better looking.
Choosing for common situations
- Email attachment of holiday photos: JPG, resized to about 2000 pixels wide.
- Company logo for a website: SVG if you have it, otherwise PNG or lossless WebP.
- Product photos in an online shop: WebP, with JPG fallback if your platform needs it.
- Screenshot for a bug report or tutorial: PNG.
- Scanned document to upload to a portal: usually PDF, otherwise JPG.
- Image you will keep editing: PNG (or the editor’s own format) until the final export.
Our take
Do not overthink it: JPG for photos you share, PNG for anything with text or transparency, WebP for anything that lives on a website. The biggest wins usually do not come from the format at all but from size: a 6000-pixel photo on a page that displays it at 800 pixels wastes far more than any format choice. Resize first with Resize Image, then compress with Compress Image.