JPG, PNG or WebP? A practical guide to smaller images.
Pick a format based on the image, the background and where it will be used.
Use JPG for photos and compatibility
JPG is widely supported and often compact for photographs. It uses lossy compression, so repeated re-encoding can introduce artifacts. It does not support a transparent background; PaperLumo replaces transparent areas with white when exporting JPG.
Use PNG for lossless graphics
PNG is useful for screenshots, graphics and transparency. It is lossless, but it can be substantially larger than JPG for photographs. Converting a low-quality JPG to PNG does not recover the original detail.
Use WebP for many web images
WebP offers efficient compression and is supported by modern browsers. PaperLumo’s WebP tool lets you choose the quality. Compare the exported image at its intended display size and check it in the application where it will be used.
Resize before chasing extreme compression
An image does not need to be 6000 pixels wide if it will be displayed at 1200 pixels. Resize Image reduces width proportionally and does not enlarge smaller source files. This often saves more space than lowering quality on an oversized image.