Believe it or not, over 3 billion images are shared online every single day. These images are shared across a slew of different file types and formats.
The two most popular formats are undoubtedly PNGs and JPGs. But what are the differences between the two? When comparing PNG vs JPG, is one really better than the other?
That’s what we’re here to look at today. Read on to find out more about PNGs and JPGs here.
What is a PNG?
Portable network graphics, or PNG, are raster graphics file formats originally intended to replace graphics interchange format or GIFs. The PNG address many of the limitations of GIFs.
One of the most striking characteristics of PNGs is their ability to support transparency. This means you can essentially have cutouts of images easily superimposed onto other PNGs or JPGs.
PNGs often hold more information than other file formats and have lossless file compression. This means PNGs retain all the data contained in the file during the compression process.
What is a JPG?
JPG refers to the Joint Photographics Experts Group, the organization that created this file format. Through JPGs, they aimed to make image sharing easier by reducing the size of the files.
JPGs, therefore, make image sharing efficient at the cost of some loss in quality. This means unnecessary information is taken out during the compression process.
JPGs should be used for smaller images or when you don’t need incredibly detailed imagery.
PNG vs JPG
The question still stands: when it comes to PNG vs JPG, which one is better?
It all depends on how you choose to use it and what matters to you in terms of image quality. Compression is the biggest factor when it comes to this topic.
Remember that compression basically means reducing the size of an image without sacrificing the quality based on the size of the file.
The stronger a compression is, the smaller the file size will be. This also means the lower overall quality of the image.
Remember how we talked about how JPGs have different compression values than PNGs. Since they’re a little lossier, unnecessary information is deleted whenever you compress certain images into JPGs.
PNGs, on the other hand, are lossless. This means you can retain much of the higher quality aspects of an image even after compression.
So Which Should I Use?
It might be misleading to think that you should use PNGs all the time since they tend to be of higher quality.
This is hardly the case and doesn’t fit why certain people tend to use one over the other. If you don’t need high-quality images, such as simple social media sharing, then a JPG will do just fine.
If you’re editing photos, a PNG will pretty much be a requirement. Those who are putting together different graphic images should also consider using PNGs more frequently.
A lot of times, you need to swap file formats between JPGs and PNGs. In that case, a PNG to JPG converter is necessary. Being able to switch one into the other is much easier than you might think!
Leverage PNGs and JPGs Today
Whether you choose to use one over the other, PNGs and JPGs, have a place in many people’s work. Use this article to understand PNG vs JPG arguments today.
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