JPG vs PNG vs WebP: which image format to use

The short answer

You have…	Save as	Why
A photo (camera, phone)	JPG, or WebP for a website	Lossy compression keeps photos small
A screenshot, chart or text image	PNG	Lossless: sharp edges and text stay crisp
A logo or icon with a transparent background	PNG, or WebP	Both keep transparency; JPG cannot
An image for a form that lists allowed formats	Exactly what the form asks for	Many upload forms still reject WebP

How the three formats differ

• JPG (JPEG) uses lossy compression. It throws away detail that is hard to see, which works well for photos but leaves blurry “halos” around text and sharp lines. It has no transparency. Every browser, phone and office program opens it.
• PNG is lossless: every pixel is kept exactly. Screenshots and graphics with flat colors stay sharp, and transparency is supported. The trade-off is size — a photo saved as PNG is usually several times larger than the same photo as JPG.
• WebP supports both lossy and lossless compression, plus transparency. For photos it is typically smaller than JPG at similar visible quality. All current major browsers display it, but some older software, image editors and upload forms do not accept it.

Converting a JPG to PNG does not bring back detail that JPG compression already removed — the file just gets bigger.

Example: preparing images for a blog post

Suppose you have two files:

1. beach.jpg — a 4032 × 3024 photo from a phone.
2. settings.png — a screenshot of an app’s settings screen.

A sensible plan:

• beach.jpg: resize to the width your page actually displays (for example 1600 px) with the image resizer, then save as WebP or JPG at quality around 80.
• settings.png: keep it as PNG. Converting it to JPG would make the text fuzzy.

Converting with the image converter

1. Open the JPG / PNG / WebP converter and choose your image (or drag it onto the page).
2. Under Convert to, pick JPEG, PNG or WebP.
3. For JPEG and WebP, set Quality. Lower values make smaller files with more visible artifacts.
4. When converting an image with transparent areas to JPEG, choose the Fill for transparent areas color (white or black), because JPEG cannot store transparency.
5. Check the preview and the size shown under the result, then press Save image.

The conversion runs in your browser; the image is not uploaded.

Common problems

• The WebP option is missing. Some browsers (notably Safari) can display WebP but cannot save it from a web page. The converter only offers WebP when your browser can actually create it. Try another browser if you need WebP.
• The transparent background turned white or black. That happens when you save as JPEG. Choose PNG or WebP to keep transparency.
• The PNG is much bigger than the original JPG. Expected: PNG stores every pixel without loss. Use JPG or WebP for photos.
• The photo’s location and camera data are gone. The converter redraws the image, so metadata such as EXIF (including GPS location) is not copied to the new file. The rotation from EXIF is applied before saving, so the picture still appears the right way up.
• The form says the file is too large. Converting alone may not be enough; use the image compressor to aim for a specific size.