There are dozens of image formats, but you only meet a handful in daily life. Here is a quick, practical tour of each — what it is good for, and where to convert it when you need something else.
Raster formats (made of pixels)
- JPG / JPEG — lossy, small, no transparency. The default for photos. (You may also see JFIF, which is literally the same thing with a different extension.)
- PNG — lossless with transparency. Best for logos, icons and screenshots. See PNG vs JPG for the full comparison.
- WebP — a modern format that is smaller than both, with transparency. Great for websites — details in What is WebP.
- AVIF — the newest and often smallest, based on the AV1 codec, but not yet openable everywhere. See What is AVIF.
- GIF — limited to 256 colors, known for animation. For a static frame, convert GIF to PNG.
- BMP — an old, uncompressed Windows format; files are huge. Shrink one with BMP to PNG.
Vector format (made of math)
- SVG — shapes described by mathematical paths, so it scales to any size without blur and stays tiny. Perfect for logos and icons. You can even turn a PNG into an SVG by tracing it.
For documents
- PDF — not an image format, but where images often end up. You can combine images into a PDF or pull pages back out as images.
Which should I use?
- A photo? → JPG (or WebP/AVIF for the web).
- A logo, icon or screenshot? → PNG (or SVG if it is a simple graphic).
- A fast website? → WebP or AVIF, with a JPG/PNG fallback.
- A file too big to send? → compress it.
Convert between any of them
Every conversion runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded. Browse the full set on the image converters hub, or jump straight to a common one like PNG to JPG, PNG to WebP or compress an image.
Once you know what each format is for, choosing — and converting — takes seconds.