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Choosing the Right Image Format: JPEG, PNG, or WebP?

•By ResizeCompress Team

Images often account for the majority of a website’s payload. If your site is loading slowly, the first place to look is your image formats.

Serving the wrong format can result in blocky artifacts on your logos or massive file sizes on your photographs. Today, we’ll break down the three most important web formats and when you should use them.

The Workhorse: JPEG

JPEG (or JPG) is the most widely supported image format on the internet. It uses lossy compression, meaning it achieves small file sizes by permanently discarding parts of the image data that the human eye typically doesn’t notice.

When to use JPEG:

  • Complex photographs with millions of colors.
  • Large background hero images.
  • When you need a highly compressible file and don’t need transparency.

When NOT to use JPEG:

  • Logos, icons, or text. JPEG compression creates noticeable “ringing” artifacts around sharp edges.

The Quality Standard: PNG

PNG uses lossless compression. This means that no data is lost during the compression process, resulting in crisp, perfect images. Crucially, PNG also supports an alpha channel, allowing for transparent backgrounds.

When to use PNG:

  • Logos and UI icons.
  • Screenshots featuring text or sharp UI elements.
  • Any image that requires a transparent background.

When NOT to use PNG:

  • High-resolution photographs. A full-color photograph saved as a PNG can be 5 to 10 times larger than the same image saved as a JPEG.

The Modern Solution: WebP

Developed by Google, WebP was designed specifically to replace both JPEG and PNG. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, and it supports transparency.

According to Google, WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs, and WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller than comparable JPEGs.

When to use WebP:

  • Almost everywhere on the modern web. All modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) now support WebP natively.
  • Use it as the primary format for your CMS uploads to save massive amounts of bandwidth.

Conclusion

Understanding these three formats is the foundation of image optimization. If you have existing JPEGs or PNGs that are too large, you can use our Image Compressor to instantly convert them to WebP directly in your browser, completely free of charge.