The Difference Between JPGs And PNGs

Last updated on 26 November 2024

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

Did you know the difference between JPGs and PNGs?

JPG and PNG… excuse you?!⁠ 👀 You’ve probably come across the various image types before. There are many types of image formats – JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP – but probably the most common types of images you’ll find on the internet are JPGs and PNGs. But do you know the difference between JPGs and PNGs? And which is better for your blog?

We’re going to take a look at both file formats, their differences, and some ways that you can use them on your blog.

What is a JPG (or JPEG)?

⁠JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and it’s often shortened again to just JPG. A JPG is a pretty standard image format, and they’re the most web-friendly, as they’re not huge files. This means that don’t take up a lot of space on your blog, clogging up your site and making it slow.

The downside to a JPG/JPEG is that they do lose their quality when they’re scaled-down in size. If you have a lovely picture but you size it down to fit a certain box of width on your s

Because of that quality loss, you’re okay to use them with blog and website images such as landscapes, a picture of your dog, travel images. You might lose a bit of quality, but you’re not going to lose the fact that the sky is blue, this is a cute puppy or proof that you were once in Paris. ⁠

What is a PNG?

PNG stands for Portable Graphics Format (to be honest I’m unsure where the “n” comes from?), and it was first created to replace a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). These days, GIFs are mostly short moving images. You can set them to have no background, making them perfect for things like logos. ⁠

Unlike a JPG, a PNG doesn’t lose its quality when it shrinks in size. This is great news because it means that detailed graphics, for example, won’t start turning blurry when you resize them for different website widths. They’re also great for things such as charts and logos, as you can set the background to transparent.

A PNG does take up a lot of room on your blog, however, sometimes resulting in slow website loads.

Which is better JPG or PNG for your blog?

As both a JPG and a PNG are different in their formats, you might use them for different image types. And if your blog has a combination of photographs and then interesting infographics or charts, then you’ll use both JPGs and PNGs on your blog.

Think of it like this: if it’s an image of a place, person or thing, use a JPG. If it’s a graphic, chart, infographic, use a PNG.

It’s a generic rule-of-thumb, but it’s good to keep in mind.

Did you know the difference between JPGs and PNGs?