JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF? Choosing an Image Format

Updated 27 October 2026 · by the My Gadgets team

Use JPG for photos, PNG for screenshots and anything with transparency, and WebP when the image is going on a website. AVIF compresses best of all but is still awkward to create and is not accepted everywhere, so it is a choice for websites you control, not for files you send to people. Those four sentences cover most decisions; the rest of this article explains why, and covers the cases where the obvious answer is wrong.

The short version

What actually separates them

Two properties decide almost everything.

Lossy or lossless. A lossy format (JPG, and WebP or AVIF in their usual mode) throws away detail the eye is unlikely to notice, which is how a 30 MB photo becomes a 3 MB file that looks the same. A lossless format (PNG, and WebP or AVIF in lossless mode) keeps every pixel exactly, which matters for text and sharp edges and costs size on photographs.

Transparency. JPG has none. If you convert a logo with a transparent background to JPG, the transparent area is filled with a solid colour — usually white or black — and there is no getting it back.

The other differences are age and support. JPG and PNG are decades old and open anywhere. WebP arrived in 2010 and is now supported by every current browser. AVIF is the newest, compresses the most, and is the slowest and least supported to create.

Which format should I use for…

Photos you are sending to someone

JPG. It opens on every phone, computer, printer, form and email client. A photo saved as PNG is simply larger with no visible gain. If the file is too big, reduce its pixel dimensions with Resize Image before lowering the quality — a 4000-pixel-wide photo shown on a phone carries several times more data than anyone will see.

Screenshots, slides and anything with text

PNG. JPG compression smears sharp edges, so text in a JPG screenshot picks up fuzzy halos, especially in red and on flat colours. PNG keeps it crisp, and for screens full of flat colour it is often smaller than JPG. The exception: a screenshot that is mostly a photo or video frame is better as JPG.

Logos and icons

PNG when you need a raster file, because logos need transparency and sharp edges. If the designer gave you an SVG, keep it: SVG is a vector format, scales to any size without blurring, and is usually tiny. For browser tab icons specifically, Favicon Generator produces the set of PNG sizes sites need.

Images on your own website

WebP, for photos and graphics alike. It is typically a quarter to a third smaller than JPG at the same visual quality, supports transparency, and every current browser displays it. Convert Image Format writes real WebP files, and Compress Image can export WebP with a quality slider.

AVIF saves more again, often close to half the size of a JPG, and current browsers display it. The catch is creating it: most browsers can show AVIF but not write it, so in-browser tools usually cannot produce it — Convert Image Format offers AVIF only where your browser can encode it and greys the option out elsewhere — and you generally need an image editor or a build tool that encodes AVIF. If your site's tooling does that for you, use it; if not, WebP gets you most of the benefit with no extra steps.

Email

JPG for photos, PNG for graphics. Email clients are the main holdout for newer formats: some, including older desktop versions of Outlook, don't display WebP or AVIF. Stick to the two formats that open everywhere.

Upload forms, job portals and government websites

JPG, unless the form says otherwise. Many forms accept only JPG and PDF, and some reject PNG for photos. Read the form's stated limits carefully — size limits like "under 240 KB" and dimension rules like "600 × 600 pixels" are common for ID photos.

Printing

JPG at high quality or PNG, at enough resolution for the print size: around 300 pixels per inch for photos you will look at closely. A 10 × 15 cm print needs roughly 1200 × 1800 pixels.

Converting without losing quality

A few rules save people from the most common mistakes:

• Converting JPG to PNG does not restore quality. The detail JPG discarded is gone; PNG just stores the damaged image losslessly, in a bigger file.
• Each JPG save loses a little more. Edit and convert from the best original you have, not from a copy of a copy.
• PNG to JPG fills transparency. Check logos and cut-outs after converting.
• iPhone HEIC photos convert to JPG with HEIC to JPG when something won't open them.

All of these tools run in your browser, so converting a personal photo or an unreleased design does not mean uploading it anywhere. Converting through a canvas also drops most metadata, including GPS location — usually welcome, and worth knowing if you wanted to keep it.

Quick answers

Is WebP better than JPG? For websites, yes: smaller at the same quality. For files you send to other people, JPG is safer because everything opens it.

Is PNG higher quality than JPG? PNG is lossless, so it never adds artefacts; JPG at high quality is visually indistinguishable for photos and much smaller. "Higher quality" only matters for text and sharp graphics.

Why is my PNG so big? It is probably a photo. PNG compresses flat colour well and photographic detail badly. Save photos as JPG or WebP.

Should I use AVIF? On a website whose build process can encode it, yes. For anything you email, upload to a form or share, no — not yet.

What to do next

Change a file's format with Convert Image Format, shrink it with Compress Image, and fix its dimensions with Resize Image. If the image is a photo you are about to share publicly, read what your photos reveal about you first.