PNG vs JPG: When to Use Each Format

PNG and JPG are the two most common image formats on the web, and many people use them interchangeably — but they're designed for very different types of content. Using JPG for a logo gives you blurry text and colour banding. Using PNG for a photograph gives you a file five times heavier than necessary. The good news: once you understand the core difference, choosing the right one takes about two seconds.

The key difference: lossy vs lossless

JPG (JPEG) uses lossy compression: it analyses the image and discards information your eye is unlikely to notice, particularly fine detail and transitions at sharp edges. The result is a much smaller file, but one that looks slightly different from the original at the pixel level. For photographs with smooth gradients and natural textures, this trade-off is invisible — you can't see the difference at typical viewing sizes.

PNG uses lossless compression: every single pixel is preserved exactly. The file is larger, but it's a perfect copy. For images with hard edges, flat colours, text or transparent areas, lossless is the right choice because lossy compression introduces visible artefacts (fuzziness, colour fringing) at edges and text.

Use JPG for: photographs

Any photo from a camera or phone — portraits, landscapes, food, products, events — should be JPG (or WebP, which is better on both counts). These images have millions of smooth colour gradients that compress very well with lossy methods. A high-quality JPEG at 80% quality looks identical to the original at normal viewing sizes and is typically 5–10× smaller than the equivalent PNG.

JPEG at 70–80% quality is the sweet spot for the web. Going lower causes visible blockiness in skies and skin tones. Going higher wastes space with no visible benefit.

Use PNG for: graphics, logos, screenshots, transparency

PNG wins whenever you need: (1) a transparent background — buttons, overlays, icons with no background; (2) text that must be crisp — screenshots, diagrams, slide exports; (3) flat colours without gradients — logos, icons, illustrations. JPEG's compression smears these images: text gets fuzzy, solid-colour areas get splotchy, and transparent backgrounds become white or introduce colour fringing.

If you're saving a company logo, a screenshot of a web page, a UI mockup, or an icon, use PNG. The file will be larger, but the quality will be pixel-perfect.

The modern answer: WebP does both

If you're serving images on a website and want the best of both worlds, WebP is the modern replacement for both JPG and PNG. Its lossy mode beats JPEG by 25–35% at the same quality; its lossless mode beats PNG. It also supports transparency. Every major browser now supports WebP, so it's a safe choice for the web.

For everything else — sharing via email, uploading to forms, sending on WhatsApp — stick with JPG for photos and PNG for graphics. They're universally supported and the choice is simple: photos → JPG, everything else → PNG.