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Best Image Format for the Web: JPG vs. PNG

JPG or PNG Which is Better for Web

By Kendra D. Mitchell | Sep 17,2020 11:12 am

In your daily life, you use a lot of image formats like JPG, GIF, and PNG, but when it comes to online upload and sharing then you rely on either JPG or PNG for the web because these two are the best of all. But have you ever wondered which one is really good because both of them are pretty much different from each other and they both are used for completely different purposes? To better understand their aspects and uses, you can get a detailed description that is discussed in the article below.

Part 1. Introduce JPG&PNG
Part 2. JPG Compare with PNG

Part 1. Introduce JPG&PNG

a. What is a JPG Image File

JPG is one of the most used image formats and is also denoted as JPEG. It stands for Joint Photographic Image format and the reason that it is widely used is that it takes a lot less space to save even a high-quality image. Thus, when considering which one is better to upload, JPG or PNG for the web then you can simply go with the JPG/JPEG format because it won’t take much time to get uploaded. The JPG images are also considered as the best format for your photographs as they can store images with high quality and high gradients.

b. What is a PNG Image File

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics and this format was introduced to replace the GIF format but somehow today they both are widely in use. The PNG format is especially for high-quality images but the size of the file is a little big. So, if the size is not an issue to you then this could be the best option for high quality and complex images. Another format of PNG i.e. PNG-8, it is pretty much similar to a GIF image and it supports almost 256 color indexes while PNG-24 is like a JPG image which supports almost 16 million color indexes. So, it is a good choice if you want to email or send high quality and lossless compression image to anyone because it never loses its quality.

Part 2. JPG Compare with PNG

a. The Differences Between JPG and PNG

As it is mentioned in the above section, both of the image formats, JPG or PNG for the web are good for different uses but what makes both of them different from each other is the lossless compression. When any image is edited or resaved, it may or may not lose a little bit of its quality. In JPG images, when edited or compressed, it deletes all the unnecessary data permanently and thus it loses some of its quality. Also, this is the very reason why they take less space. But, this doesn’t happen with any PNG image. The PNG image is a kind of lossless format of image that means it doesn’t lose its quality when edited.

Thus, in simpler words, it can be said that PNG images have the lossless compression while JPG/JPEG image has the lossy compression.

b. Which Should You Use for Web?

If confused to choose that which one is better, JPG or PNG for the web then the easy answer to this is what your need is. Like, whether you want to upload a bunch of images or want to share a good and small animation to your social media account, you can go with small sized files to easily upload the bunch i.e. JPG/JPEG and high-quality file for better animation i.e. PNG. So, it depends upon where you are transferring or uploading the file, what kind of image it is and what is their quantity.

Another thing you can use to decide the format is what is the restriction or requirement of the website where you have to upload the picture. A lot of websites only allow low sized files so in that case, you will obviously go with JPG/JPEG image format but if the site doesn’t have any limit of size and you have a good internet connection then you can go with PNG format.

Comparison Table: JPG vs. PNG

File Extension	JPG	PNG
Vector	NO	NO
Raster	YES	YES
Transparency	NO	YES
Animation	NO	YES
Lossy	YES	NO

Summary

All the concepts given above might have explained that which one is the best format for your use. However, experts recommend that instead of sticking to just one format you can refer to both and use either JPG or PNG for the web but whichever suits for that particular condition. To be precise, the JPEGs are the photographic images with low size while PNG is more of high quality, text heavy and bigger sized images. So, now you can use your preferred format and you can also change the format if needed using any good converting software.

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