JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF — Which Image Format Should You Use?
Saving the same picture as JPG, PNG or WebP can give files that differ in size by ten times — and look noticeably different. Choosing the right format makes websites faster, uploads succeed and logos stay crisp.
This guide explains what each common format does, where it shines, where it fails, and gives a simple rule for choosing.
Lossy and lossless: the key difference
Lossy formats (JPG, and WebP or AVIF in lossy mode) throw away detail the eye is unlikely to notice. This makes photos dramatically smaller, but the lost detail never comes back, and saving the same file again and again slowly degrades it.
Lossless formats (PNG, and WebP or AVIF in lossless mode) keep every pixel exactly. They are ideal for screenshots, text, logos and graphics with sharp edges, but much larger for photos.
JPG (JPEG): the universal photo format
JPG opens everywhere — every phone, camera, browser, printer and government portal. It is excellent for photographs and very poor for text, line art and screenshots, where it creates blurry halos around sharp edges.
JPG has no transparency. A logo with a transparent background saved as JPG gets a solid (usually white) background.
PNG: sharp graphics and transparency
PNG is lossless and supports transparency, which makes it the right choice for logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams and images containing text. A photo saved as PNG, however, is often three to five times larger than a good JPG.
PNG files can still be made smaller: lossless optimisation, or reducing the number of colours (palette PNG), often halves the size of graphics without visible change.
WebP and AVIF: modern formats for the web
WebP supports both lossy and lossless compression, transparency and animation. For photos it is typically 25–35% smaller than JPG at similar quality, and all modern browsers display it. Some older desktop software and many official portals still do not accept it.
AVIF compresses even better than WebP — often half the size of JPG — and also supports transparency. It is slower to create and is supported by current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, but support outside browsers is still limited.
GIF, HEIC and SVG
GIF is limited to 256 colours, which makes photos look poor, but it is still used for small animations. For anything else, PNG or WebP is better.
HEIC is the default photo format on iPhones. It is efficient but poorly supported on Windows and by upload forms, so convert it to JPG before sharing.
SVG is different: it describes shapes mathematically, so logos and icons stay perfectly sharp at any size. A photo cannot become a real vector image just by saving it as SVG.
A simple rule for choosing
Use this as a starting point:
- Uploading to a form or portal: JPG for photos, PDF or JPG for documents — follow the form's list exactly.
- Photos on your own website: WebP (or AVIF), with JPG as a fallback if you need it.
- Logos, icons, screenshots and images with text: PNG, or SVG for logos if you have a vector file.
- Archiving originals: keep the camera original or a lossless copy, and export smaller versions from it.
Frequently asked questions
Does converting JPG to PNG improve quality?
No. Detail lost by JPG compression cannot be restored; PNG only stores what is left, in a larger file.
Is WebP better than JPG?
For websites, usually yes — smaller files at similar quality. For uploads to forms and sharing with people using older software, JPG is still the safe choice.
Which format keeps a transparent background?
PNG, WebP, AVIF and GIF support transparency. JPG does not.
Why is my PNG photo so large?
PNG is lossless, so it stores every pixel of a photo. Convert photos to JPG or WebP for a much smaller file.