JPGPhotos & broad compatibility
A widely supported lossy image format that is especially practical for photographs and compact delivery copies.
Best for: Photographs, email, general sharing, upload forms, compatibility-focused delivery.
Trade-off: Repeated re-encoding can add artifacts, and transparent pixels cannot be represented as true alpha transparency.
PNGLossless graphics & transparency
A lossless format commonly used for screenshots, graphics, text-heavy images, and transparent assets.
Best for: Screenshots, logos, UI graphics, diagrams, overlays, and workflows that need lossless storage.
Trade-off: Full-resolution photographs can be much larger than efficient lossy formats without gaining new source detail.
WebPModern web delivery
A modern image format used widely on the web with support for lossy, lossless, and transparent workflows.
Best for: Website images, modern browser delivery, photos, and transparent web graphics.
Trade-off: Older or specialized software may still prefer JPG or PNG, and quality settings are encoder-specific.
AVIFHigh-efficiency modern images
A modern format capable of strong compression efficiency for many photographic and graphic images.
Best for: Modern web delivery where small transfer size and current codec support are important.
Trade-off: Encoding and decoding behavior, tooling support, and quality controls should be tested with the real workflow.
TIFFScanning & professional imaging
A flexible image container common in scanning, print, archival, and professional imaging workflows.
Best for: Scanning, archival sources, print workflows, high-quality intermediates, and professional imaging.
Trade-off: Files can be large and may contain metadata or features that simple delivery formats cannot preserve.
GIFLegacy animation & simple graphics
A long-standing palette-based image format known for simple animation and broad recognition.
Best for: Simple legacy animations and small palette-based graphics.
Trade-off: Limited color palette and inefficient photographic storage; the current single-image converter exports one frame.
BMPSimple bitmap storage
A straightforward bitmap format that is easy to decode but often inefficient for everyday delivery.
Best for: Legacy Windows bitmap workflows and simple interchange with software that explicitly requests BMP.
Trade-off: File size can be dramatically larger than compressed alternatives such as JPG, PNG, or WebP.
ICOIcons & favicons
A container used for Windows icons and website favicons, often carrying one or more icon-sized images.
Best for: Favicons, Windows icons, and software that explicitly requires ICO.
Trade-off: Not intended as a general-purpose photo format; single-image conversions use the best available icon frame.
JXLModern high-efficiency imaging
JPEG XL is designed for efficient still-image compression with modern fidelity features and flexible lossless or lossy workflows.
Best for: Modern archival or specialist pipelines that explicitly support JPEG XL.
Trade-off: Application and browser support is not as universal as JPG, PNG, or WebP.
JP2JPEG 2000 interchange
JPEG 2000 is used in archival, imaging, document, and specialist workflows that need its wavelet-based compression model.
Best for: Archival, imaging, geospatial, medical, and legacy professional pipelines that require JPEG 2000.
Trade-off: Consumer and web compatibility is much lower than JPG or PNG.
HDRRadiance high-dynamic-range images
Radiance RGBE stores high-dynamic-range image data for lighting, rendering, and environment-map workflows.
Best for: 3D rendering, lighting, environment maps, and HDR technical pipelines.
Trade-off: Not intended for ordinary sharing, websites, or office applications.
EXRProfessional HDR & VFX imaging
OpenEXR is a professional high-dynamic-range format used heavily in VFX, compositing, rendering, and production pipelines.
Best for: VFX, CGI, compositing, rendering, and high-dynamic-range production interchange.
Trade-off: Advanced channel/layer semantics may not map to simpler single-image outputs.
PCXLegacy bitmap interchange
An older raster format associated with classic PC graphics and paint applications.
Best for: Legacy software, preservation, or interchange where PCX is explicitly required.
Trade-off: Rare in modern consumer workflows and usually larger or less convenient than current formats.
TGALegacy graphics & texture workflows
Truevision TGA remains useful in some graphics, game-development, and texture pipelines.
Best for: Legacy graphics tools, game assets, textures, and pipelines that explicitly request TGA.
Trade-off: File sizes can be large and web/browser use is uncommon.
QOISimple lossless image interchange
Quite OK Image is a compact, simple lossless raster format designed for fast encoding and decoding.
Best for: Developer tools, experiments, and applications that explicitly support QOI.
Trade-off: Small ecosystem compared with PNG, WebP, or JPG.
PNMPortable bitmap family
The Netpbm family is intentionally simple and useful for command-line, scientific, and interchange workflows.
Best for: Unix tools, scientific workflows, testing, and simple raster interchange.
Trade-off: Large files and very limited consumer-facing usefulness.