Image File Formats Explained: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, SVG and BMP

JPG, also written JPEG, dates from 1992 and uses lossy compression. It makes photographs small and opens everywhere, but it has no transparency and blurs sharp edges. It is the safest choice for sharing photos.

PNG is lossless and supports full transparency. It is ideal for logos, screenshots, diagrams and anything with text, and poor for photographs because the files are large.

GIF, from 1987, can show simple animations but is limited to 256 colors and produces big files. It survives mostly because of memes. Modern animated WebP or short videos do the same job better.

WebP, from Google, handles photos, graphics, transparency and animation at smaller sizes than JPG or PNG. AVIF squeezes photos even further using AV1 compression. Both work in current browsers, but older software may not open them, so convert when you need compatibility.

HEIC, also called HEIF, is what iPhones save by default. It is about half the size of JPG at similar quality and can hold extras such as Live Photo data. Many websites and older programs reject it, so photos are often converted to JPG before sharing.

SVG describes shapes with math rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at any size and is tiny for logos and icons. It is not suitable for photographs, and some places that accept only PNG or JPG need a converted copy.

BMP stores raw pixels with no compression, so files are huge. You mostly meet it in legacy software. Converting a BMP to JPG or PNG usually shrinks it by 90 percent or more with no visible change.