Convert to JPG

Almost everyone converting to JPG is solving a compatibility problem rather than making an aesthetic choice. An upload form rejects the file, a print service will not accept it, an older application refuses to open it, or an email attachment needs to be under a certain size. JPG is the format that ends those arguments — three decades old, unencumbered by patents, and readable by everything.

The second reason is weight. PNG and BMP in particular store far more data than a photograph needs, and converting to JPG routinely cuts the file by 80% or more with no visible change at a sensible quality. For anything being emailed, uploaded or served on a page, that is the difference between a file that works and one that does not.

JPG has no transparency. There is no alpha channel in the format at all, so anything see-through must be painted over with a solid colour before saving. That is fine for a photograph and wrong for a logo intended to sit on a coloured background.

It also holds exactly one image, so animation is lost — an animated GIF or WebP converts to its first frame. And because it is lossy, every save discards a little more detail. Convert once from the best source you have, and keep that original if you might need to edit later.

Finally, JPG is a poor fit for sharp-edged content. Screenshots, diagrams, line art and anything with small text pick up a faint halo around every edge, and often do not even get smaller. PNG or WEBP is the better destination for those.

The quality slider decides how aggressively detail is discarded. 85–92% is the range where the compression is essentially invisible and the file is still dramatically smaller than the source — start there unless you have a reason not to.

Push to 95% and above for images that will be printed, enlarged or examined closely; the file grows quickly for a difference most people cannot see on a screen, but printing is unforgiving. Drop to 70–80% when you need to hit a hard size limit and the image is a normal photograph. Below that, blocking becomes visible first in skies, skin tones and any smooth gradient.

Since transparency has to become something, this tool automatically matches the colour found at the image's own edges by default — no picking required, and no white rectangle around a subject that was never meant to sit on white. White, black or any custom colour is one click away when you want something different, such as matching a dark interface or a coloured card.

One thing to watch: PNG and WebP transparency is usually anti-aliased, so edge pixels are partially transparent and blend with whatever you choose. An image prepared against white and then filled with black can show a pale fringe. If that appears, re-exporting the source against the correct background is cleaner than trying to correct it afterwards.