PNG, JPG, GIF or WEBP: What image formats exist and which is best for the web?

What is the best image format?

We usually know some image extensions when we download an image or upload a GIF to WhatsApp, although we rarely know their meaning and the characteristics of one or the other.

It often happens when we have a website and need an image to illustrate or complement the content that we are asked about the appropriate image format. Although it may seem inconsequential, a poor choice of image format can cause unnecessary problems on our website, such as large graphics, graphics with blurry text, etc.

Depending on the format, we can compress the image or leave it with a transparent background; we can even animate it. But how do we know which format is best for a given image? Below, we'll compare several of the most commonly used formats: PNG, JPG, GIF, and WEBP. Our analysis will be based on three key factors.

PNG vs JPG: Compression

All graphics included on a web page must be downloaded from the server, and therefore it is important that the images weigh little so that the content can be downloaded as quickly as possible.

In this regard, JPG is a good format because it allows us to compress images up to 10 times their original size. With JPG, you can save photos with vibrant colors, and the file size will be quite small, making it ideal for websites. Keep in mind that it's a compressed format, so when converting the image, there will be a greater or lesser loss of quality, depending on the compression ratio used, and this loss will increase with subsequent conversions. We recommend not compressing at a ratio lower than 70% of the original quality, which will generally give you images under 200 KB but with sufficient quality to display well on the website from any device.

On the other hand, PNG is a lossless image formatThis means you can save the image as many times as you want without losing quality. Among uncompressed image formats, this is the most widely used on the web today. It's very useful for website backgrounds, icons, or graphics that aren't photographs.

JPG

All graphics included on a web page must be downloaded from the server, and therefore it is important that the images weigh little so that the content can be downloaded as quickly as possible.

In this regard, JPG is a good format because it allows us to compress images up to 10 times their original size. With JPG, you can save photos with vibrant colors, and the file size will be quite small, making it ideal for websites. Each time you reduce the size, you will lose quality. We recommend not compressing at a ratio lower than 70% of the original quality, which will generally result in images smaller than 200 KB, but this will be sufficient for them to look good on the website from any device.

PNG

The PNG format offers the best transparency capabilities. This format can store up to 8 bits of additional information per pixel, allowing us to create translucent graphics regardless of the background color. However, these images will be larger in size (in kilobytes) and therefore result in bigger files.

PNG is a lossless image format. This means you can save the image as many times as you want without losing quality. Among uncompressed image formats, it's the most widely used on the web today. It's very useful for website backgrounds, icons, or graphics that aren't photographs.

GIF

The trendy format thanks to its integration with WhatsApp, GIF It is a format that allows movement in a usually infinite loop (due to its fame, specialized portals such as Giphy have appeared).

It can support transparencies and a palette of 256 colors.Besides animations, GIFs can be used for simple, small-file-size images with flat colors (gradients don't work well due to the limited number of shades). They are not recommended for photography: photos lose too much quality when converted to GIF.

It may interest you: 20 free resources for web developers/designers 

WEBP extension

It's a new image format that has revolutionized the world of image compression. Developed by Google and recommended in its PageSpeed ​​Insights web optimization tool, it began in 2010 as an open-source initiative that achieves compression reductions of up to 30% for both static images and animations.

The only problem is that, due to its recent release, not all browsers support this format. It's available in Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari. It's the future of image formats.

Conclusion: What is the best image format?

For now, there is no single format that can work for everything, so we will have to use one or the other depending on our needs in each case.

The JPG format is the most suitable for realistic photographs and images that in their original format would occupy several megabytes, since, when compressed, they can occupy a few hundred Kb or less.

The PNG format is best suited for use in website backgrounds, icons and graphics, or images with transparent backgrounds, or with fine lines or text.

We will use GIF for animations and files that contain little information or colors.

And whenever possible, we'll use WebP to filter by browser to improve our overall PageSpeed ​​score and also increase image download speed.

We hope this simple comparison of image formats will be useful for improving the performance and quality of the images on your website.

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