JPG vs PNG vs GIF. We explain the differences between the most popular image formats, as well as the best alternatives for the future.

There are many file formats that we can use to save our favorite images. Although they all seem to look exactly the same, the truth is that there are great differences between them that we cannot ignore. In this post we make a comparative JPG vs PNG vs GIF, the 3 most popular formats today.

Lossy Vs. Lossless Image Formats

Before delving into the differences between each of these three image file formats, we need to understand that there are two large groups of image file formats.



First, we have the image file formats loss. These formats greatly reduce the size of an image file, permanently deleting much of the information that is stored in that file.

This causes a large reduction in file size, but also inevitably causes a loss of image quality.

Secondly, we have the image file formats without loss. These image formats will also see a great reduction in the size of the file, although the great difference is that in this case the information is not deleted, but it is compressed iron so that it ends up taking up less space


JPEG – Lossy Image Format


JPEG is without a doubt the most popular and most widely used image format on the entire Internet. It is a type of files that has existed for many years, and is characterized by offering a great understanding of images, so the resulting file size is very small.

This format was born at a time when the speed of Internet connections was very low, so it was essential to compress the images a lot, so that it didn’t take forever to send them.

In addition, JPEG supports various levels of data compression, so we can also obtain images with an excellent balance between quality and size. This together with the high compatibility with all types of device, which makes it continue to be the most widely used format even in the middle of 2020

JPEG is ideal for:

Upload photos to the Web
Save and send small images
General use
Print images.

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