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Choosing an image format is a small decision that has a big impact on your site’s speed and how good your products look. The wrong format can double a page’s weight without any visible gain in quality.
JPG
The most widespread format for photos. It uses “lossy” compression, discarding fine details the eye barely notices in order to reduce file size.
- Good for: product photos and images with smooth color gradients.
- Not good for: logos, text and graphics with sharp edges; it does not support transparency.
PNG
Uses “lossless” compression, preserving every detail, and supports transparent backgrounds.
- Good for: logos, icons, screenshots, graphics containing text and images that need a transparent background.
- Not good for: photos, because the file becomes much larger than a JPG with no noticeable difference.
WebP
A modern format supporting lossy and lossless compression, transparency and animation. It usually produces noticeably smaller files than JPG and PNG at similar quality, and all major modern browsers support it.
- Good for: most website and store images, whether photographic or transparent.
- Watch out: some platforms or older editing software may not accept it, so check before uploading.
Quick comparison table
| Use | Suggested format |
|---|---|
| Product photo | WebP or JPG |
| Logo or icon | SVG, PNG or WebP |
| Image with a transparent background | WebP or PNG |
| Screenshot with text | PNG or WebP |
| Platform that does not support WebP | JPG |
What about SVG?
A vector format based on mathematical shapes rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at any size and is very small. It is ideal for logos, icons and simple graphics, but not for photos.
How to convert and compress your images
You can convert images from JPG or PNG to WebP, resize them and adjust quality with our image compressor. Try a quality between 70% and 80%, compare the result with your own eyes, then keep the smallest size where you see no difference.
Extra tips
- Always keep the original high-resolution file and edit a copy.
- Do not convert a compressed JPG to PNG hoping to improve quality; lost details do not come back.
- Resize before compressing: reducing dimensions saves the most weight.
Summary
Use WebP as the default for most of your site’s images, JPG when you need wider compatibility, PNG for graphics and transparency when WebP is not available, and SVG for logos and icons. The right choice makes your site faster and your images sharper.
