Image Format Converter

JPG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF: when to use which

JPG (or JPEG) is the workhorse for photos. Uses lossy compression — small files, but loses some quality each save. Great for: photos with gradients and many colors. Bad for: logos, screenshots, anything with text or sharp edges. PNG uses lossless compression — perfect quality, but larger files. Supports transparency (alpha channel). Great for: logos, screenshots, icons, graphics with text. WebP is Google's modern format — 25-35% smaller than JPG at equivalent quality, supports transparency like PNG. All modern browsers support it. AVIF is the newest — even smaller than WebP, supports HDR and wide color. Safari 16+ and Chrome 85+ support it.

Choosing the right format

For websites: use WebP or AVIF if your audience is on modern browsers (post-2020). Fall back to JPG for older browsers. For social media: each platform re-encodes uploads, so the source format doesn't matter much — use whatever's smallest at good quality. For archival: PNG for graphics, highest-quality JPG (95%+) for photos. For email: JPG and PNG are universally supported; WebP support is patchy. For print: TIFF or high-quality PNG, never JPG (compression artifacts are visible in print).

Transparency matters

JPG cannot do transparency. PNG, WebP, and AVIF can. If you have a logo or icon with a transparent background, you must use PNG/WebP/AVIF. Modern websites use CSS to put logos on different backgrounds — the transparent logo file makes this work. Don't try to fake transparency with white backgrounds; it always looks wrong on colored backgrounds.