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PNG vs JPG vs WebP: Which Image Format Should You Use?

Last reviewed October 12, 2026

Every image format makes a different trade between file size, quality and features. Picking the wrong one can make a page slow, a logo fuzzy or a photo huge. This guide compares the formats Anvil converts and tells you which to use for what, then shows how to switch between them in a few clicks.

The short answer

  • Photos for sharing or the web: JPG, or WebP for smaller files.
  • Logos, icons, screenshots and anything with sharp edges or text: PNG.
  • Anything that needs a transparent background: PNG or WebP.
  • Simple looping animations: GIF (for photos, video is usually better).
  • Archiving or printing at full quality: TIFF or PNG.

PNG: sharp and lossless

PNG keeps every pixel exactly as it was, which is why it is the standard for screenshots, logos, diagrams and interface graphics. It supports transparency, so a logo can sit on any background. The cost is size: a photo saved as PNG is often several times larger than the same photo as a JPG.

JPG: small photos that work everywhere

JPG (also written JPEG) is built for photographs. It removes detail your eye is unlikely to notice, which makes files much smaller, and every device, website and program can open it. The trade-off is that each save loses a little quality, and sharp edges and text can show fuzzy halos at low quality settings. JPG cannot store transparency.

WebP: usually the smallest

WebP is a modern format that can be lossy like JPG or lossless like PNG, and it supports transparency. At similar visual quality its files are typically noticeably smaller than JPG, which helps pages load faster. All current browsers display it. The main downside is older software and some social or print services that do not accept it, in which case convert it back to JPG or PNG.

BMP, TIFF and GIF

BMP is a very old, uncompressed format with huge files. You mostly meet it in legacy software. TIFF is a high quality format used in scanning, publishing and photography archives, and its files are large. GIF is limited to 256 colours, so it suits flat graphics and short animations rather than photos. You can make an animated GIF from several images with Anvil.

How to convert between formats

  1. Open the Images tool.
  2. Drop one or more images onto the upload area. Each image can be up to 25 MB.
  3. Choose the target format: PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, TIFF or GIF.
  4. For JPG and WebP you can set a quality value. Around 85 is a good balance.
  5. Press Convert. A single image downloads directly, and several images come back together in a ZIP file.

Converting a PNG with a transparent background to JPG loses the transparency, because JPG has no way to store it. Keep PNG or choose WebP if you need to keep it.

To make photos smaller as well as change their format, see the guide on compressing and resizing images for the web.

Try it now

Open the Images tool. It is free, needs no account, and your files are deleted right after conversion.

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