Photo file formats: HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and more, explained

Photo file formats decide three things about a picture: how large the file is, which apps will open it, and whether it can have a transparent background. Most of the confusion comes from the fact that a phone, a website and a download each hand you a different one: HEIC from an iPhone, WebP or AVIF from a web page, JFIF from a browser on Windows, and the familiar JPG and PNG from everything else. This page puts them side by side, says which one to keep for which job, and points to a guide on each.

The short version: photographs are stored small as JPG, HEIC, WebP or AVIF; anything with a see-through background needs PNG, WebP or AVIF; and when you do not know what the person at the other end can open, JPG for a photo and PNG for a cutout are the two that never fail.

The photo file formats at a glance

Browser support in the table was checked on caniuse.com on 16 September 2026, where AVIF showed about 95 percent of browsers in use and WebP about 97 percent. HEIC was about 15 percent, all of it Safari.

Two families: formats for storing, formats for cutting out

The first thing to know about any format is whether it has an alpha channel, a fourth number beside red, green and blue that says how see-through each pixel is. That single fact decides whether a file can hold a cutout. What a transparent background actually is explains alpha and why the grey and white checkerboard you see in editors is only a display convention, not part of the picture.

JPG has three numbers per pixel and nowhere to put a fourth, so it cannot be transparent in any version or at any quality. Save a cutout as a JPG and the program paints a colour behind it, usually white, and that colour is now part of the photo. HEIC, the iPhone format, technically allows an alpha layer, but a camera never writes one, and the few apps that open HEIC would not expect one.

PNG, WebP and AVIF all carry alpha with soft edges, meaning a strand of hair can be 40 percent opaque and blend into whatever is placed behind it. GIF has transparency of a cruder kind: each pixel is either fully clear or fully solid, so a GIF cutout has a jagged, stair-stepped edge against anything but the colour it was designed for.

JPG, the one everything opens

JPEG was designed in the early 1990s for photographs, and it is still the format every phone, camera, printer, website form and email client understands. It gets its small size by throwing away detail the eye does not notice, in blocks of 8 by 8 pixels. On a photograph that loss is invisible at a sensible quality setting; on text, logos and hard edges it shows as a grey fringe.

getSVG, our sibling tool for vector files, has the full explanation of how that works and when it hurts in JPG vs PNG. For this pillar the important part is the name that confuses people most: a file ending in .jfif is a JPG with a different extension. What is a JFIF file explains why Windows and Chrome sometimes save downloads that way and how to stop it.

PNG, the one that keeps a cutout

PNG stores every pixel exactly, with an optional alpha channel, and compresses without losing anything. That makes it the right format for a picture with its background removed, for screenshots, logos and anything you will edit and save repeatedly. The price is size: a photograph saved as PNG is often five to ten times larger than the same photo as a JPG, and a full-resolution cutout from a 12 megapixel phone photo often runs to several megabytes.

getSVG covers the format itself in what is a PNG file. What getPNG’s guides add is what to do when that size becomes a problem: how to reduce a PNG’s file size walks through colour reduction, lossless optimisers and resizing without losing the transparent background.

HEIC, the iPhone’s format

Since iOS 11 in 2017, an iPhone’s camera has saved photos as HEIF files with the .heic extension by default, because they take noticeably less storage than JPEG for the same visible quality. Inside Apple’s world that is invisible: Photos, Messages, AirDrop and iCloud all handle it. Outside it, HEIC is the format most likely to refuse to open: Windows needs extensions from the Microsoft Store, and Chrome, Edge and Firefox do not display it at all.

What is a HEIC file covers opening one on Windows, Mac and Android and changing the iPhone setting, and HEIC vs JPG vs PNG compares the three on size, quality, compatibility and editing so you can decide which one your photos should be in.

WebP and AVIF, the web’s formats

WebP (Google, 2010) and AVIF (Alliance for Open Media, 2019) were both made to shrink images on web pages. Both do lossy compression for photos and lossless for graphics, both carry alpha, and both are now read by every current browser. They are why an image you save from a shopping site or a news article so often arrives as .webp or .avif rather than .jpg, and why an older desktop app sometimes will not open it.

getSVG has the general explainer in what is a WebP file. On getPNG, what is AVIF covers the newer format, which browsers and apps read it, and when converting to PNG or JPG is worth it. PNG vs WebP for websites answers the practical question for anyone running a site: whether a transparent product photo or a logo should go up as PNG or WebP, with the numbers.

GIF and BMP, briefly

GIF is from 1987 and limited to 256 colours per frame, with transparency that is on or off for each pixel. It survives because it animates everywhere, but for a still photo it is the wrong choice: the colour limit shows as banding and speckle, and a cutout gets a jagged edge. BMP is Windows’ old uncompressed format, large and without useful transparency in most apps. Both still turn up in old folders and old software, and both convert cleanly to PNG with no loss.

Which format should a photo be in?

The choice is easier when you start from where the picture is going rather than from the format.

• Sending a photo to someone, or uploading it to a form: JPG. It is the only format you can be certain the other side opens.
• Keeping photos on an iPhone: HEIC is fine, and saves space. Change it only if you regularly move photos to a Windows PC or to apps that refuse it.
• A picture with its background removed: PNG, so the transparency survives every app you open it in. How to make a transparent PNG covers the ways to get one.
• A picture on your own website: WebP, or AVIF where your platform supports it, with a PNG kept as the master copy.
• Something you will edit many times: PNG while you work, because each save of a JPG loses a little more; export the final version in whatever format it needs.
• Printing: a high-quality JPG for photos, which is what most print shops expect.

Converting between formats: what it can and cannot do

Converting changes the container, not the picture’s history. Turning a JPG into a PNG does not remove the JPEG blocks or bring back detail; it stores the damage exactly, in a larger file. Turning a PNG into a JPG loses the transparency and adds compression. Turning a WebP or AVIF into a PNG makes a file that more apps open, usually two to five times larger, and looking exactly the same.

The other thing a converter decides is where your file goes. Most online converters that rank for “HEIC to JPG” or “WebP to PNG” work by uploading the file to their server, converting it there and sending the result back. For a holiday snap that may not matter to you; for a photo of a passport, a child or a document it might. Is it safe to upload photos to online converters sets out what the popular services’ own policies say, and how to check a website is not uploading your photos shows how to see for yourself in any browser.

On a computer you already own, the built-in route is often enough: Preview on a Mac exports any of these formats, and Paint on Windows can save most of them as JPG or PNG once it can open them. For a HEIC on a PC without the extensions, HEIC to PNG converts it in the browser without uploading it.

Every guide in this pillar

The list below is every guide about photo formats on getPNG, in reading order. Start with HEIC if the files came from an iPhone, with AVIF or WebP if they came from a website, and with the PNG size guide if the problem is a file that is too large to upload.

Questions

Which photo file format is best?

There is no single best one, only the best for a job. JPG is the safest for sharing a photograph because everything opens it. PNG is the safest for anything with a transparent background. WebP and AVIF are the smallest for a web page, and HEIC is the smallest for storing photos on an iPhone.

Which image formats support transparency?

PNG, WebP, AVIF and GIF can store transparency, and GIF only as fully clear or fully solid pixels with no soft edges. JPG and JFIF cannot store it at all. HEIC can in principle, but photos from a phone camera never use it and few apps would read it.

What is the difference between JPG and JPEG?

None. They are two spellings of the same file extension for the same format; the three letter version dates from old DOS and Windows limits of three letters per extension. JFIF is the same format again under a third name, which Windows sometimes gives to downloads.

Why are my iPhone photos HEIC and not JPG?

Since iOS 11 the camera saves in High Efficiency mode by default, which writes HEIF files with the .heic extension, because they take less storage than JPEG. You can switch to JPEG in Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible.

Should I convert WebP or AVIF to PNG?

Only when an app you need cannot open them, or when you are going to edit the picture and save it several times. Converting makes the file larger and does not make it look better. A PNG is also the most dependable way to keep a transparent background across apps.

What format should I save a photo with a removed background in?

PNG, because it keeps the transparent area in every app that can open images. WebP also keeps it and is smaller, which suits a website. JPG cannot, so a cutout saved as JPG always gets a solid colour behind it.