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JPEG vs PNG vs HEIC vs WebP: One Photo Saved Six Ways, and Which Format to Use When

By Ayush Patnaik, founder of AccioPix

Published October 24, 2026 · 12 min read

JPEG vs PNG comes down to a single question: is it a photo or a graphic? JPEG drops detail you cannot see to keep photo files small. PNG preserves each pixel and handles transparency, so it works well for logos and screenshots. HEIC is the iPhone's smaller format for photos. WebP and AVIF shrink files further still, and both were made for web pages.

Most comparisons stop at "PNG is bigger". We wanted the actual numbers, so we took one photo and saved it six ways, with every setting written down. It's the same 26-megapixel picture of brick houses we used for our WhatsApp compression test: brickwork, lace curtains and a smooth sky, the things compression finds hardest. No people in it, and you can repeat the test yourself.

JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP and AVIF at a glance

JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP and AVIF differ in three ways: whether they drop detail, whether parts can be transparent, and what will open them. The compatibility column draws on MDN's image format guide, the caniuse tables for HEIF, WebP and AVIF, and listings in the Microsoft Store, all checked on 24 October 2026.

These browser shares come from caniuse's global figures: 97.18% for WebP, 96.35% for AVIF, and 16.93% for HEIF, which is Safari alone. MDN explains the photo-versus-graphic split in one line: "For screenshots, diagrams, logos, and line art, prefer lossless encoding, as blurring and colored fringes around text and sharp edges are very visible."

One photo saved six ways: the file size test

The file size test shows that the format matters less than the setting. That changes when you choose lossless. We compared every lossy format at the same measured quality, rather than the same slider number. We did this because "quality 80" means something different to each encoder.

The method, so you can check it. The original is brick buildings under a blue sky by Mat Reding on Pexels, a 6240 by 4160 JPEG of 4,300,799 bytes. We decoded it and resized it to 2048 by 1365 pixels, a common size for web pages and sharing. JPEG, PNG, WebP and AVIF were written with sharp 0.33.5 on libvips 8.15.3, which uses MozJPEG 4.1.5, libpng, libwebp 1.4.0 and libavif's AV1 encoder, aom 3.9.1. HEIC was written by Apple's own encoder through the sips command on macOS 26.5.1, on an Apple M4. Lossy files used 4:2:0 colour and carried no metadata.

We measured quality with SSIM, the structural similarity index from Wang, Bovik, Sheikh and Simoncelli (2004). It checks small patches of a copy against matching patches in the original, adjusting for brightness and contrast. A score of 1 means identical. The paper tested the index against human ratings on 344 images compressed with JPEG and JPEG2000. We ran it on brightness alone, with a Gaussian window of sigma 1.5, in scikit-image 0.26. JPEG at quality 85 set our baseline at 0.930. For every other lossy format, we sought the lowest setting that matched or beat it.

The lossy formats finish close together. AVIF saved nearly a third over a good JPEG, HEIC a quarter, and WebP a sixth. Published results show bigger gains. Google's WebP compression study found "the average WebP file size is 25%-34% smaller compared to JPEG file size at equivalent SSIM index", and MDN says lossy AVIF images "are around 50% smaller than JPEG images". We tested one photo against MozJPEG, an encoder tuned to shrink JPEG files. Treat our gaps as a floor for pictures like this, not a rule.

The lossless rows sit in another size class. Full resolution makes the gap sharper. The 4.30 MB camera JPEG became 29.5 MB as a PNG and 19.3 MB as a lossless WebP, almost seven times bigger with not one pixel improved. We ran the matched test at 2048 pixels for a reason. Saving a JPEG at original size aligns with its old compression grid and flatters JPEG. At full size, our quality 85 copy scored higher than quality 90.

The slider numbers lie, too. At the same 2048 pixels:

Apple's 80% setting beat even JPEG at quality 95, which scored 0.967 at 843 KB. Put two formats at "the same quality" setting and you compare two different pictures.

JPEG vs PNG: lossy photos, lossless graphics

JPEG vs PNG is a choice between a compact photo and an exact duplicate. MDN calls JPEG "lossy; based on the discrete cosine transform". The method divides an image into little blocks and drops fine detail from each block. That works for a photo. Grass and skin hide the missing parts. It works poorly for a logo. MDN warns that lossy compression on "content requiring sharpness, like diagrams or charts, can produce unsatisfactory results."

PNG never throws anything away. The W3C's PNG specification, now in its third edition of June 2025, lists its design goal as "Losslessness: filtering and compression should preserve all information", and supports "an optional alpha channel". That alpha channel is PNG's other reason to exist, and JPEG has nothing like it. MDN is blunt: "JPEG does not support an alpha channel."

We tried these same formats on our own logo. It is a 500 by 500 graphic on a transparent background, served at 23.7 KB. As a full-colour PNG at zlib level 9, it came to 21.8 KB. A 256-colour palette PNG weighed 10.4 KB, and a lossless WebP was the same size. A lossy WebP at quality 80 preserved the transparency at 9.4 KB, and AVIF at quality 50 took it down to 4.2 KB. The JPEG at quality 90 stood apart: 20.6 KB, scarcely smaller than the full PNG, with the transparent background turned white. On a graphic, JPEG gives up the one feature you need and saves almost nothing.

This is why the free background remover and the logo background remover give you PNG files. A studio logo or a cut-out of a couple with a white box around it is useless on a dark photo. For watermarks, the watermarking guide begins with that PNG logo.

A PNG cannot restore a JPEG. Turning a camera JPEG into a PNG traps the damage in a lossless file several times the size. Convert to PNG only when you need transparency or plan to edit and re-save many times.

HEIC vs JPG: the iPhone's format, and where it stops working

HEIC vs JPG is a trade of storage for compatibility. Apple's HEIF and HEVC support page says "iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra introduced support for these new, industry-standard media formats", and that they "offer better compression than JPEG and H.264" while "preserving the same visual quality". Our test agrees: at matched SSIM the HEIC was a quarter smaller than the JPEG.

The trouble is everywhere else. Caniuse marks HEIF as supported in Safari from version 17 and in no version of Chrome, Firefox or Edge. On Windows, Microsoft's free HEIF Image Extension says "the HEVC Video Extensions package must be installed in order to view images stored in HEIF files that use the .heic, .hif or .heif file extensions", and the HEVC Video Extensions cost $0.99 in the US store. Apple softens this by converting on the way out: when the other device can't read HEIC, it says media "might automatically be shared in a more compatible format, such as JPEG or H.264."

Leave HEIC on your phone and in iCloud. Convert only when the photo leaves. Step-by-step guides for iPhone, Mac and Windows are in how to batch convert HEIC to JPG. To handle a whole folder in the browser, use HEIC to JPG, HEIC to PNG for a lossless copy, or HEIC to PDF for a form that asks for a document. Uploading to AccioPix needs no conversion. The uploader turns iPhone HEIC into full-resolution JPEG right in your browser.

WebP vs JPG, and AVIF, on the web

WebP vs JPG is mostly a question for whoever builds the web page. Web.dev's image formats course says "Google originally developed WebP as a lossy image format to supersede JPEG", and later added "lossless compression, PNG-like alpha channel transparency". So one format can do both jobs: photos in lossy mode, logos in lossless mode.

In browsers, support is no longer the obstacle. Caniuse lists full WebP support from Chrome 32, Firefox 65, Edge 18 and Safari 16. Outside the web, things are patchier. Windows provides a free WebP Image Extension to "view WebP images in the Windows File Explorer, Photos and other Windows apps". On the Mac we tested, macOS 26.5.1, the built-in sips tool lists WebP as a format it reads but cannot write. It writes HEIC, AVIF, JPEG and PNG. A WebP works fine on a web page. As a file you hand to a client, it will confuse someone.

AVIF is the newest of the five and won our size test. Web.dev describes it as "an encoding based on the open source AV1 video codec". It costs time: in our run each AVIF took four to five times as long to write as the JPEG. Windows needs the free AV1 Video Extension to show .avif files, according to the HEIF extension's own listing. MDN's advice for the web is to serve AVIF with "a fallback in WebP, JPEG or PNG format using the <picture> element".

The free photo compressor saves all four web formats right in the browser. It uses MozJPEG for JPEG, libwebp for WebP, and libavif for AVIF. PNG can be lossless or use a palette of 256, 64 or 16 colours for screenshots. Nothing is uploaded. Which settings hold up on event photos is explained in reducing photo size without losing quality.

The right format for each job

The right format for each job depends on who opens the file next. If you don't know who that is, send a JPEG.

• Event photos for guests and clients: Export JPEG at a high quality setting. Any phone, laptop, printer, or upload form takes it. Keep your RAW or camera originals as masters; RAW vs JPEG explains that.
• Logos and watermarks: Use SVG if you hold the vector file. Otherwise, use PNG. For icons, MDN says to "prioritize the SVG version whenever possible".
• Cut-outs and product shots on a plain background: Use PNG, or WebP on the web. Both formats keep transparency.
• Websites and portfolios: Stick with WebP everywhere, or pair AVIF with a WebP or JPEG fallback. Resize first. Spare pixels cost more than the choice of format.
• iPhone storage: HEIC. Convert to JPEG when a photo leaves Apple's devices.
• Print: Use a full-resolution JPEG at a high quality setting, or whichever format the lab requests. Don't send WebP or HEIC files to a lab without asking first.
• WhatsApp: JPEG. Any picture sent as a photo gets re-encoded. In our WhatsApp test on this same picture, only the photo sent as a document arrived untouched. Send a PNG logo as a document as well, so it arrives just as it left.

For a whole wedding, the format question mostly goes away. Upload the exported JPEGs to AccioPix once and put the QR code on the tables. Each guest sends a selfie and gets back full-size JPEGs of the photos they're in, on WhatsApp, at ₹0.20 a photo; the pricing page has the rest. The wedding photo sharing page shows the guest side, and AccioPix for photographers shows how your studio name travels with the album.

Frequently asked questions

Is JPEG or PNG better?

It depends on the picture. For photographs, JPEG wins: it drops detail the eye barely notices, so the file stays small. For logos, screenshots and anything that needs a see-through background, PNG wins, because it keeps every pixel and has an alpha channel. Our 2048-pixel test photo was 409 KB as a JPEG and 4.21 MB as a PNG.

What is HEIC?

HEIC is the format an iPhone saves photos in when its camera is set to High Efficiency. It is a HEIF file holding a picture compressed with HEVC, the codec Apple also uses for video. It takes less space than a JPEG of the same quality. Chrome, Firefox and Edge can't display it, and Windows needs extensions to open it.

Is WebP better than JPG?

On a web page, usually. WebP gives smaller files at the same quality, and it can be transparent. Google's study measured WebP 25 to 34% smaller than JPEG at equal SSIM; on our single test photo the saving was 16%. For files you send to people, stick with JPG, which every app, printer and upload form accepts.

Does PNG have better quality than JPEG?

A PNG stores exactly the pixels it is given, so it adds no compression damage of its own. It can't bring back detail that a JPEG already threw away. Save a camera JPEG as a PNG and you get a file several times larger that looks identical. For photos, most eyes can't tell a high-quality JPEG from the original.

What is the best image format for a logo?

SVG if you have the vector file; PNG if you don't. Both keep edges sharp and the background transparent. JPEG smears the edges of text and shapes and cannot be transparent, so a JPEG logo always sits in a white or coloured box. On a website, a lossless WebP does the same job as PNG in a smaller file.

References

• Apple Support, Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices. Read 24 October 2026.
• Can I use, HEIF/HEIC image format, WebP image format and AVIF image format. Read 24 October 2026.
• Google for Developers, WebP compression study, last updated 7 August 2025. Read 24 October 2026.
• Mat Reding, Pexels, Brick buildings under blue sky. Test image. Read 24 October 2026.
• MDN Web Docs, Image file type and format guide. Read 24 October 2026.
• Microsoft Store, HEIF Image Extension, HEVC Video Extensions, AV1 Video Extension and WebP Image Extension, US store. Read 24 October 2026.
• W3C, Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Third Edition), W3C Recommendation, 24 June 2025.
• Wang, Z., Bovik, A. C., Sheikh, H. R. and Simoncelli, E. P., 2004. Image quality assessment: from error visibility to structural similarity. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 13(4), pp. 600-612.
• web.dev, Image formats: WebP and Image formats: AVIF, Learn Images. Read 24 October 2026.