PNG vs JPG: Which Format Should You Actually Use?

PNG or JPG? It's the most common file-format decision there is, and picking wrong has real costs: photos saved as PNG can be ten times larger than they need to be, while logos saved as JPG grow fuzzy halos around every edge. The good news is that the rule is simple once you know what each format was built for.

The one-sentence rule

JPG for photographs, PNG for graphics. If a camera made it, JPG. If a human designed it — logos, icons, screenshots with text, diagrams, anything with sharp edges or a transparent background — PNG.

Why JPG wins for photos

JPG's lossy compression was engineered specifically for the smooth gradients and organic textures of natural images. It throws away detail your eye can't see, which is why a 24-megapixel photo can compress from 70 MB of raw data down to 4 MB and still look perfect. Save that same photo as PNG and you get 30–50 MB, because PNG's lossless compression refuses to discard anything — a discipline that buys you nothing on a photo.

Why PNG wins for graphics

Graphics are JPG's weakness. Its compression works on 8×8 pixel blocks, and at sharp edges — text, line art, flat color boundaries — those blocks produce the smudgy "mosquito noise" you've seen around letters in over-compressed memes. PNG reproduces every pixel exactly, so a screenshot of code or a logo stays razor sharp. PNG also supports full transparency, which JPG simply cannot do — any transparent area saved as JPG becomes a white box.

The mistakes that bloat files

The classic error is the "PNG photo": a phone photo that ends up as PNG via a screenshot or an export setting, quietly weighing 15 MB. Converting it to JPG or, better for the web, WebP typically cuts it by 80–95% with no visible difference. The reverse error — a JPG logo — can't be fully fixed by converting back (the artifacts are baked in), but re-exporting from the original design file as PNG always can.

Where the modern formats fit

WebP and AVIF do both jobs — photos and transparency — at smaller sizes, which is why we recommend them for anything you publish on the web (see our WebP vs AVIF vs JPG comparison). JPG and PNG keep two advantages: universal acceptance by upload forms, printers and old software, and zero surprises. When a website says "JPG or PNG only", convert with WebP to JPG or WebP to PNG and move on.

Cheat sheet

Photo for email or an upload form → JPG. Photo for your own website → WebP. Logo, icon, or anything transparent → PNG. Screenshot with text → PNG. File too big either way → the image compressor finds the best quality for a target size automatically. Every converter linked here runs free in your browser with no upload.