PNG vs JPG: What's the Difference?

PNG and JPG (also written JPEG) are the two formats you'll run into constantly, whether you're exporting from a design tool, downloading a graphic, or saving a photo. They solve different problems, and picking the wrong one leads to either bloated file sizes or a graphic that looks broken with a solid box around it.

The quick answer

What is PNG?

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a lossless format — it compresses files without discarding any image data, and it supports a full alpha (transparency) channel. Every time you save a PNG, it looks exactly as sharp as the last save. The tradeoff is file size: PNG files are typically larger than JPGs of the same photo.

What is JPG?

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a lossy format — it achieves much smaller file sizes by selectively discarding image data that's less noticeable to the human eye. This makes it excellent for photographs, but every re-save introduces a small amount of additional quality loss, and JPG has no transparency support at all — every JPG is a solid rectangle.

Head-to-head comparison

Transparency

PNG wins, decisively. This is the single biggest reason to choose PNG. JPG cannot represent transparency in any form — if you need a cutout, a logo, or any graphic layered over something else, PNG is the only real option.

File size

JPG wins for photographs. A detailed photo as JPG might be 200 KB; the same image as PNG could be 2-3 MB. For simple graphics with few colors (icons, screenshots, text), the gap narrows significantly and PNG can even come out smaller.

Quality over repeated saves

PNG wins. Because PNG is lossless, you can open, edit, and re-save it as many times as you want with zero degradation. Every JPG re-save compounds quality loss — visible as blocky artifacts after enough rounds.

Browser and software support

Tied. Both formats are universally supported by every browser, operating system, and design tool in existence.

The one rule that matters most

If you remember nothing else: if it needs to be transparent, it has to be PNG. There's no JPG equivalent. Everything else — file size, repeated-save quality — is a secondary consideration that rarely changes the decision once transparency is in play.

Converting between the two

If you have a PNG and need a JPG (say, to shrink a file for email), most image editors and our own SVG to JPG converter handle the export directly. Going the other way — adding transparency to a JPG — isn't really "converting" since a JPG has no transparency data to begin with; you'd need to remove the background first with a tool like our Background Remover, which outputs a proper transparent PNG. And if you need a PNG logo or icon as a scalable vector, our free PNG to vector converter traces it into an SVG right in your browser.