PNG vs JPG vs WebP: how to pick without guessing

This article answers one question: given an image, which format should you save it as? The answer depends on what is in the image, not on which format is newer.

1. The differences in three lines

• JPG — lossy, small, no transparency. For photos.
• PNG — lossless, transparency, large. For screenshots, icons, text-heavy designs.
• WebP — Google's format, lossy or lossless, transparency, typically 25–35% smaller.

2. A decision path you can just follow

3. Three common mistakes

"PNG is higher quality." PNG is lossless, so it keeps what JPG throws away. But converting an existing JPG to PNG does not restore anything — it just multiplies the file size. Format conversion cannot recover lost data.

"WebP is always smaller." Usually, yes. For tiny icons (16–32 px) the header overhead can make WebP slightly larger than PNG.

"WebP works everywhere." All modern browsers, yes. Some older systems, some email clients and some in-app previews still fail. If you do not know what the recipient is using, send JPG.

4. Conversion and compression are different jobs

Conversion fixes the format; compression fixes the size. Doing only the first is why people end up with the same file size — PNG to PNG compresses nothing.

For photos, the right order is: resize → pick the format → tune quality. All three can be done in a browser with nothing uploaded.

5. Cheat sheet