Should I use PNG or JPG for photos?

JPG. A photograph saved as PNG is several times larger with no visible benefit. Reserve PNG for graphics, screenshots, and images that need transparency.

Does converting JPG to PNG improve quality?

No. Converting to PNG stops further loss, but it cannot restore detail the JPG already discarded. The file just becomes larger.

Comparison

PNG vs JPG: When to Use Each Format

Updated May 21, 2026

The short answer

Use JPG for photographs. Use PNG for graphics with sharp edges, flat color, or text — logos, icons, screenshots, and diagrams — and for anything that needs transparency.

The split comes down to one thing: JPG is lossy, and PNG is lossless.

Lossy vs lossless

JPG uses lossy compression. It permanently discards image detail to make files small, and it is very good at hiding that loss in photographs, where smooth gradients and fine texture mask the artifacts. Push the quality too low, though, and you get visible blocky patches and halos around edges.

PNG uses lossless compression. It keeps every pixel exactly as it was. That makes it perfect for images with hard edges and solid colors — a JPG of a screenshot or a logo shows ugly fuzz around the text, while a PNG stays crisp.

How they compare

	PNG	JPG
Compression	Lossless	Lossy
Transparency	Yes	No
Best for	Logos, icons, screenshots, text	Photographs
File size for photos	Large	Small
File size for flat graphics	Small	Larger, with artifacts
Animation	No	No

File size

For a photograph, JPG wins easily — it can be a fraction of the size of the same photo saved as PNG, with no visible difference. For a flat graphic with few colors, a PNG is actually the smaller file, and it looks better too.

Choosing the wrong format hurts twice: a photo saved as PNG is needlessly huge, and a logo saved as JPG is both larger than necessary and visibly degraded.

Transparency

Only PNG supports it. JPG always has a solid background. Any image that needs to sit cleanly on top of another — a logo, a product cut-out, an overlay — must be a PNG or a WebP.

Which should you use?

Photographs: JPG.
Logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams, and text: PNG.
Anything needing a transparent background: PNG.
Publishing on a modern website: consider WebP, which beats both on size.

Convert freely in your browser: PNG to JPG to shrink a photo saved in the wrong format, or JPG to PNG when you need a lossless copy. To make a file smaller without switching formats, use the image compressor.

Frequently asked questions

PNG is lossless, so it always keeps perfect quality. But for photographs JPG looks just as good at a far smaller size. JPG quality only suffers visibly at low quality settings or on sharp-edged graphics.