Image File Formats Explained: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, AVIF, SVG and HEIC

Raster or vector?

Raster images are grids of coloured pixels. Photographs are raster. Enlarge them too much and they look blocky. Vector images describe shapes with mathematics (a circle here, a curve there), so they stay sharp at any size. Logos and icons are best as vectors.

Lossy or lossless?

Lossy formats achieve small files by throwing away detail the eye is unlikely to miss. Lossless formats compress without discarding anything, so the pixels are exactly the same after decoding. Some formats can do both.

The formats

JPG / JPEG

The workhorse for photographs since the 1990s. Lossy, no transparency, no animation. Supported by every device and app. A quality setting trades size against detail; see our compression tests for what each level costs. Repeated re-saving gradually degrades the picture.

PNG

Lossless, supports full transparency, great for screenshots, logos and graphics with text. Poor for photographs because files get large. PNG does not support photos’ lossy shortcuts, which is why a photo saved as PNG can be ten times bigger than a JPG.

WebP

A modern format from Google that can be lossy or lossless, supports transparency and animation, and usually makes smaller files than JPG or PNG. All current major browsers display it. Some older software does not open it, so you may need to convert WebP to PNG.

GIF

Limited to 256 colours per frame, but famous for simple animations. For photographs it looks poor. Modern short video clips or animated WebP are usually smaller than GIF for the same animation.

AVIF

A newer format based on video compression. It can produce smaller files than WebP for photographs, and supports transparency and high-dynamic-range colour. It is supported by recent versions of the major browsers, but is slower to create and not yet accepted everywhere.

SVG

A vector format written as text (XML). Perfect for logos, icons and simple illustrations because it scales without losing sharpness and files are tiny. Not suitable for photographs.

HEIC / HEIF

The default photo format on recent iPhones. It stores photos in about half the space of JPG at similar quality. The problem is compatibility: many websites, Windows apps and forms cannot open it. Safari can display it; most other browsers cannot. If a site rejects your iPhone photo, export it as JPG from the Photos app, or set the camera to “Most Compatible”.

BMP, TIFF and RAW

BMP is an old, uncompressed format, rarely a good choice today. TIFF is common in print and scanning workflows, and RAW files from cameras hold unprocessed sensor data for editing. These are working formats rather than web formats.

Quick comparison

Format	Type	Transparency	Animation	Best for
JPG	Lossy raster	No	No	Photographs
PNG	Lossless raster	Yes	No (APNG exists)	Screenshots, graphics
WebP	Lossy or lossless raster	Yes	Yes	Web images
GIF	256-colour raster	1-bit	Yes	Simple animation
AVIF	Lossy or lossless raster	Yes	Yes	Web photographs
SVG	Vector	Yes	Via code	Logos, icons
HEIC	Lossy raster	Yes	Sequences	Phone photo storage

How to choose

If you are unsure, follow this rule: photographs in JPG (or WebP for websites), graphics with text in PNG, logos in SVG. When you need to switch, the Image Converter handles PNG, JPG and WebP. For the detailed head-to-head, read PNG vs JPG vs WebP.

Frequently asked questions