Explainers
Image Formats Explained: JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, AVIF and More
A plain-English cheat sheet of image formats: what JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, GIF, SVG and TIFF are for, with real file size tests and when to convert.
· 3 min read · ImgKoi Team
Image formats trip people up constantly. Your iPhone saves HEIC but a website wants JPG. You need a transparent logo but JPG doesn't do transparency. A developer asks for WebP, your camera shoots RAW. Here's which format does what, and when to convert.
The cheat sheet
| Format | Transparency | Animation | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPG / JPEG | No | No | Photos, email, social media, printing |
| PNG | Yes | No | Logos, screenshots, graphics, editing |
| WebP | Yes | Yes | Website images: smaller than JPG and PNG |
| AVIF | Yes | Yes | The smallest website images |
| HEIC | Yes | Sequences | iPhone photos (saves storage) |
| GIF | On/off only | Yes | Simple animations |
| SVG | Yes | Yes | Logos and icons that scale to any size |
| TIFF | Yes | No | Printing, scanning, archiving |
How big are the files, really?
We saved the same 1600 × 1200 photo in each format with our converter at default settings:
| Format | File size |
|---|---|
| AVIF | 56 KB |
| WebP | 92 KB |
| JPEG XL | 110 KB |
| JPG | 175 KB |
| GIF (256 colors) | 878 KB |
| PNG | 1.81 MB |
| TIFF | 2.12 MB |
For photos, lossy formats win by a mile. PNG and TIFF keep every pixel, which is why they're big.
When to convert
- HEIC to JPG: an iPhone photo for someone on Windows or Android, or for an upload form.
- PNG to WebP: smaller images for your website, transparency kept.
- JPG to WebP: faster website photos.
- WebP to JPG: a saved web image that won't open or upload.
- PNG to JPG: shrink a photo that was saved as PNG.
- TIFF to JPG: a print file that's too large to email.
- SVG to PNG: a logo for places that don't accept SVG.
Quality tips
- Re-saving JPGs loses a little quality each time. Edit in PNG and export a JPG at the end.
- Converting JPG to PNG doesn't improve quality or add transparency. It just stops further loss. To get a transparent background, use Make Background Transparent or Remove Background.
- Transparent images need PNG, WebP or AVIF. JPG fills transparency with white.
- WebP is lossy by default but looks the same as JPG at a fraction of the size.
Batch conversion
Need 50 product photos as WebP? The image converter takes up to 30 files at a time, and you can even pick a different output format for each file.
For deeper dives, read PNG vs JPG, WebP vs PNG and AVIF vs WebP.
Tools in this post
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