Image Format Guide
Choose the right format for every use case.
Picking a format is the highest-leverage image decision you will make: the same picture can weigh 47× more in one format than another. Modern browsers support WebP and AVIF everywhere, which means most sites should serve those first and keep JPEG and PNG as fallbacks. Start with the cheat sheet below, then read the deep-dive for whichever format you pick.
Pick Your Format in Five Seconds
| You are optimizing… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Photos for the web | AVIF → WebP → JPEG | Around half the weight of JPEG at equal quality |
| Screenshots, UI, text-heavy graphics | PNG or WebP lossless | Pixel-perfect text, no blocking artifacts |
| Logos, icons, illustrations | SVG | Scales to any size, tiny for simple shapes |
| Short animations | WebP or AVIF animated | A fraction of GIF weight with full color |
| iPhone camera uploads | Convert HEIC first | Great compression, poor non-Apple support |
| Legacy email clients | JPEG or GIF | The only formats universally rendered |
Need to convert existing files? The converter tools handle any pair of these formats free.
WebP
.webp96% support
Modern format with excellent compression and quality balance
AVIF
.avif92% support
Next-generation format with superior compression
JPEG
.jpg100% support
Universal format for photographs
PNG
.png100% support
Lossless format with transparency support
GIF
.gif100% support
Animation format with limited colors
HEIC
.heicSafari only support
Apple's default iPhone photo format with excellent compression
SVG
.svg98% support
Scalable vector graphics for resolution-independent images