JPG vs PNG vs WebP: Which Image Format Should You Use?
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If the image is a photograph — anything with continuous color gradients like skin tones, skies, or textured surfaces — JPEG is usually the right call. Its lossy compression is specifically tuned for exactly this kind of content, and the file size savings over PNG can be dramatic, often 80–90% smaller at a quality level most people can't visually distinguish from the original.
If the image needs a transparent background, has large areas of flat, uniform color, or contains sharp text and line art (think logos, icons, or diagrams), PNG is the better choice. JPEG's compression algorithm creates visible blotchy artifacts around hard edges and text, which is very noticeable on this kind of content even at high quality settings.
WebP is worth considering as a default for most web use today: it supports both lossy and lossless compression modes, handles transparency like PNG, and generally produces smaller files than either JPEG or PNG at equivalent visual quality. The main reason to avoid it is compatibility with older software that doesn't support it yet, though this is increasingly rare.
For anything that needs to go into a printed document or a PDF, JPEG or PNG remain the safer bet, since WebP support in office software and PDF viewers is still inconsistent.