PNG vs WebP vs JPEG: Which Image Format Should You Use?
Three formats cover almost every image on the web, and picking the wrong one either bloats your page or visibly degrades your pictures. Here is the decision, made simple.
JPEG: photographs
JPEG compression is built for natural images — gradients, textures, real-world detail. At 80–90% quality a photo shrinks to a fraction of its raw size with no visible difference. Its weaknesses: no transparency, and sharp edges (text, screenshots, logos) smear into artifacts.
PNG: graphics and screenshots
PNG is lossless: every pixel survives exactly. That makes it right for screenshots, UI graphics, logos and anything with hard edges or transparency — and wrong for photos, where its files are many times larger than JPEG for no visible benefit.
WebP: the modern default
WebP does both jobs: lossy mode beats JPEG by roughly 25–35% at equal quality, and lossless mode usually beats PNG — with full transparency support either way. Every current browser renders it. For images you serve on a website, WebP is simply the better answer in 2026; keep PNG/JPEG originals as masters if you like.
Cheat sheet
- Photo for the web → WebP (or JPEG for maximum compatibility).
- Screenshot, logo, UI → PNG, or lossless WebP for the web.
- Needs transparency → PNG or WebP, never JPEG.
- Emailing to unknown software → JPEG or PNG; WebP support outside browsers still varies.
Convert between them free — PNG to WebP, JPG to WebP, WebP to PNG — right in your browser, with a quality slider and batch support. Your images are never uploaded.