PNG vs JPG: which should you actually use?

PNG and JPG are the two most common image formats on the web, and picking the wrong one means either a bloated file or a blurry image. Here is the short version, followed by the reasoning.

#The one-line answer

Use JPG for photographs and PNG for graphics with sharp edges, text or transparency. If you are not sure, JPG is usually the smaller file, and PNG is the safer one for quality.

#How they compress

JPG uses lossy compression: it throws away detail the human eye is unlikely to notice in order to shrink the file. That is brilliant for photographs, where smooth gradients hide the loss, but it produces ugly "halos" around hard edges and text.

PNG uses lossless compression: every pixel is preserved exactly. That keeps logos, screenshots and line art crisp, and it supports an alpha channel for transparency — something JPG cannot do at all.

#When to convert

• PNG → JPG when a screenshot or export is needlessly large and has no transparency. You will often cut the file size by 80% or more.
• JPG → PNG when you need a clean, lossless copy to edit, or to place on a coloured background without JPG's edge artifacts.

You can do both right now, free and online, with the PNG to JPG converter or the JPG to PNG converter. For modern projects, also consider converting to WebP, which often beats both.