Is PNG better quality than JPG?

PNG is lossless, so it never loses detail — ideal for screenshots and graphics. For photos, a good-quality JPG looks the same to the eye at a fraction of the size.

Is WebP better than JPG?

For websites, usually yes: WebP files are typically 25–34% smaller at similar quality. For email, printing and upload forms, JPG is safer because it’s accepted everywhere.

Why won’t my WebP image open or upload?

Some older apps and many upload forms don’t support WebP. Convert it to JPG or PNG.

Which format supports transparent backgrounds?

PNG and WebP. JPG doesn’t — transparent areas become a solid colour.

Images · Blog

JPG vs. PNG vs. WebP: A Practical Comparison

Updated 27 September 2026 · 6 min read

Most people only think about image formats when something goes wrong: a screenshot turns blurry, a logo arrives with a white box around it, a website loads slowly, or an upload form rejects a file. Almost all of those problems come from using the wrong one of three formats — JPG, PNG and WebP. Each is good at different things, and once you know what they are, choosing takes a second.

Open the free Image Converter

The short answer

Photos → JPG. Small files, universally accepted.
Screenshots, logos, text and anything with transparency → PNG. Crisp edges, no quality loss.
Images for your own website → WebP. Smaller than both for the same visual quality, and supported by every current major browser.

Everything below explains why, and the exceptions.

The comparison

	JPG	PNG	WebP
Compression	Lossy	Lossless	Lossy or lossless
Best for	Photos	Screenshots, logos, graphics	Web images of any kind
Transparency	No	Yes	Yes
Animation	No	Rarely used (APNG)	Yes
Typical size for a photo	Small	Very large	Smallest
Sharp text and edges	Blurs slightly	Perfect	Good (perfect in lossless mode)
Accepted almost everywhere	Yes	Yes	Browsers yes; some apps and forms no

JPG: the photo format

JPG (also written JPEG) uses lossy compression: it throws away detail your eye is unlikely to notice, especially fine colour variation. For photos — skies, skin, landscapes, food — it’s remarkably efficient, often making a file a tenth of the size of an uncompressed version with no visible difference.

Its weakness is hard edges. Around text, lines and flat blocks of colour, JPG compression creates faint smudges and speckles (called artefacts). That’s why a screenshot of a spreadsheet saved as JPG looks slightly fuzzy. JPG also has no transparency — any transparent area becomes a solid colour.

One more catch: every time you edit and re-save a JPG, it’s compressed again and loses a little more. For a photo you’ll keep editing, work from the original and export a JPG at the end.

PNG: the precise format

PNG uses lossless compression — every pixel you save is exactly the pixel you get back. That makes it perfect for screenshots, diagrams, logos, icons, charts and anything containing text. It also supports transparency, so a logo can sit on any background without a box around it.

The cost is size. A photo saved as PNG is typically several times larger than the same photo as JPG, with no visible benefit. If you’ve ever wondered why a phone screenshot of a photo is 4 MB, this is why.

WebP: the web format

WebP was designed by Google for websites, and it can do both jobs: a lossy mode for photos and a lossless mode for graphics, both with transparency. Google’s own comparisons found lossy WebP files about 25–34% smaller than JPGs of similar quality, and lossless WebP about 26% smaller than PNG. On a web page, smaller images mean faster loading, which visitors notice and search engines reward.

All current major browsers display WebP, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. The catch is outside the browser: some older desktop software, some email programs and many upload forms (job portals, government sites) still don’t accept it. That’s why images saved from websites sometimes won’t open or upload — they’re WebP.

Which to use, situation by situation

Situation	Use	Notes
Emailing or sharing photos	JPG	Opens everywhere.
Uploading to a form or portal	JPG (or PDF for documents)	Check the accepted formats; most accept JPG.
Screenshot of an app, error or document	PNG	Keeps text readable.
Logo with a transparent background	PNG	Or WebP for your own website.
Photos on your own website	WebP	Keep a JPG copy for other uses.
Product photos for an online shop	WebP or JPG	Check what the shop platform accepts.
Printing	JPG at high quality, or PNG	Printers accept both; avoid WebP.
Social media	JPG or PNG	Platforms re-compress uploads anyway.

Converting between them

The Image Converter converts up to 30 images at a time between JPG, PNG and WebP in your browser. It also reads HEIC photos from iPhones. Some rules of thumb:

PNG → JPG makes screenshots and graphics-heavy images much smaller, but transparent areas must become a solid colour — the converter lets you choose which (white by default). Use PNG to JPG.
JPG → PNG doesn’t improve quality. It stops further loss if you’ll edit the image repeatedly, but the file gets larger and the detail JPG removed doesn’t come back.
JPG → WebP is the standard way to speed up a website’s photos. Use JPG to WebP.
WebP → JPG fixes images saved from websites that won’t open or upload. Use WebP to JPG.
HEIC → JPG makes iPhone photos open on Windows and upload to forms. See How to convert HEIC to JPG.

The quality setting

JPG and lossy WebP have a quality setting, usually 1–100. The relationship between quality and file size isn’t linear: dropping from 100 to about 80 typically removes a large share of the file size with little visible difference, while going below 60 starts to show blockiness in smooth areas like skies. For most photos, 75–85 is the sweet spot. PNG has no quality setting because it’s lossless — to make a PNG smaller, reduce its dimensions or convert it.

If a form demands a maximum size, such as “under 200 KB”, the Image Compressor can aim for a target file size and find the best quality that fits. For more techniques, see How to reduce image file size.

What about GIF, AVIF and HEIC?

GIF is limited to 256 colours and mostly survives for short animations. For still images, PNG is better in every way.
AVIF is newer and compresses even better than WebP. Current major browsers support it, but support in other software is thinner still — it’s mainly a choice for websites with image pipelines that can create fallbacks.
HEIC is what iPhones save photos as by default. It’s compact and high quality, but Windows, Android and many websites don’t open it without help.

Worked example: a small business website

Leila runs a bakery and her new website feels slow on phones. Her homepage has 12 product photos straight from her camera (each around 4 MB JPG) and a logo saved as JPG with a white box around it.

She resizes the product photos to 1600 pixels wide with the Image Resizer — the site never shows them larger than that.
She converts them to WebP at quality 80. Each is now around 150–250 KB instead of 4 MB.
She asks her designer for the logo as a PNG with a transparent background, so it sits cleanly on the coloured header.
She keeps the full-size JPG originals in a folder for printing and social media.

The homepage goes from about 50 MB of images to under 3 MB. Nothing looks different, except that it loads quickly.

Common mistakes

Saving screenshots as JPG, making text fuzzy.
Saving photos as PNG, making files five to ten times bigger than needed.
Converting a blurry JPG to PNG, hoping to sharpen it.
Using WebP for an upload form or email attachment that expects JPG.
Repeatedly editing and re-saving the same JPG.
Uploading 5000-pixel camera photos to a website that displays them at 800 pixels.

Privacy

KitWren’s image converter and compressor run in your browser, so your photos aren’t uploaded to a server to be converted.