Should I use JPEG or PNG?

Photographs JPEG. Screenshots, text, logos and anything transparent PNG. The two formats fail in opposite directions, so the contents of the picture decide.

Is PNG better quality than JPEG?

PNG is lossless and JPEG is not, so a PNG is an exact copy. On a photograph that exactness is invisible and costs five to ten times the size, so better quality does not mean the better choice.

Which one is smaller?

JPEG for photographs, usually dramatically. PNG for flat graphics with few colours, where it can beat JPEG on size and on appearance at the same time.

Does PNG support transparency?

Yes, a full alpha channel with partial values, which is what makes soft edges possible. JPEG has none.

Does converting PNG to JPEG lose quality?

A little, and it also removes transparency permanently. At a high quality setting the loss is not visible. The transparency is not recoverable at any setting.

It does both jobs in one format and makes smaller files, and every current browser reads it. Software outside browsers is less consistent, so for a file you are sending on, JPEG or PNG is still the safer answer.

IMAGE FORMATS

JPEG vs PNG

One rule decides almost every case. The exceptions are the part worth reading.

Checked August 6, 2026

The short answer

Photographs go JPEG. Screenshots, text, logos, line art and anything that needs a transparent background go PNG. It is the same reason in both directions: JPEG discards detail in a way that is invisible on a photograph and obvious around a hard edge, and PNG keeps everything, which costs nothing on a flat graphic and a great deal on a photograph.

Side by side

	JPEG	PNG
Compression	Lossy, always	Lossless, always
Transparency	None	A full alpha channel
A photograph	The right choice	Five to ten times larger for no visible gain
A screenshot of text	Grey fuzz around every letter	The right choice
Re-saving	Degrades a little each time	Never degrades
Animation	No	No
Opened by	Everything	Everything

Neither of these is a bad format. They fail in opposite directions, which is why the choice is almost always obvious once you look at what is actually in the picture.

The rule, and why it is the rule

JPEG spends its bytes where eyes are sensitive and starves the places they are not. On a photograph, which is full of gradual variation and texture, that is close to free: the file can be a tenth of the size and look identical.

Hard edges are the case it handles worst. Text, a logo, a line drawing, the border of a screenshot, all come back with a faint halo and speckling around every edge. PNG stores exactly what it was given, so an edge stays an edge, and on a flat graphic with few colours the file is small anyway.

The two mistakes

A photograph saved as PNG. It is often five to ten times larger and looks no better, because what JPEG would have discarded was never visible in the first place.

A screenshot saved as JPEG. It is smaller, and the text now carries a grey fuzz that no amount of re-saving takes off. This is the worse of the two: the first only costs bytes, and this one costs the picture.

Re-saving is only free in one direction

Every save of a JPEG is a new encode that throws away a little more. Open, crop, save, repeat, and it accumulates: invisible on the second pass, unmistakable by the tenth. A PNG can be saved for ever without changing.

The habit that follows is to keep one original and export from it, rather than editing your exports.

When neither is the answer

If the destination is a browser you control, WebP does both jobs: a lossy mode that beats JPEG on size, and a lossless mode with transparency that competes with PNG. AVIF goes further on photographs and costs seconds per image to encode.

For a file leaving your hands, JPEG and PNG are still the safe answers, because everything opens them, and that is usually worth more than the bytes.

Converting between them

The converter here goes either way, and to WebP and AVIF as well, and it runs on your own machine so nothing is uploaded. One thing to expect: converting a JPEG to PNG makes a larger file and recovers nothing, because what was already discarded stays discarded.

More guides

Guides

FAQ

Should I use JPEG or PNG?: Photographs JPEG. Screenshots, text, logos and anything transparent PNG. The two formats fail in opposite directions, so the contents of the picture decide.
Is PNG better quality than JPEG?: PNG is lossless and JPEG is not, so a PNG is an exact copy. On a photograph that exactness is invisible and costs five to ten times the size, so better quality does not mean the better choice.
Which one is smaller?: JPEG for photographs, usually dramatically. PNG for flat graphics with few colours, where it can beat JPEG on size and on appearance at the same time.
Does PNG support transparency?: Yes, a full alpha channel with partial values, which is what makes soft edges possible. JPEG has none.
Does converting PNG to JPEG lose quality?: A little, and it also removes transparency permanently. At a high quality setting the loss is not visible. The transparency is not recoverable at any setting.
What about WebP?: It does both jobs in one format and makes smaller files, and every current browser reads it. Software outside browsers is less consistent, so for a file you are sending on, JPEG or PNG is still the safer answer.

Convert between them

JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF, any into any. Nothing is uploaded.

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