Image Formats Guide

Next-gen format based on the AV1 video codec. Up to 50 % smaller than JPEG at equivalent quality. Excellent for web performance but slower to encode.

Newest format designed to replace JPEG. Offers superior compression, lossless JPEG recompression, progressive decoding and wide colour gamut. Browser support is still growing.

Google's modern format offering 25–35 % smaller files than JPEG/PNG with comparable quality. Supports both lossy and lossless modes, transparency and animation.

Lossless format ideal for screenshots, logos, icons and anything with sharp edges or text. Supports full alpha transparency. Larger than JPEG for photos.

The most widely used photo format. Great for photographs where small file size matters more than pixel-perfect quality. Does not support transparency.

Vector format — resolution-independent and tiny for simple graphics. PicConverter can rasterize SVG input to any pixel format, and also trace raster images into SVG output using vtracer.

Legacy format limited to 256 colours per frame. Best known for short animations. For static images, PNG or WebP are almost always better choices.

Professional archival format supporting high bit-depth and multiple layers. Large file sizes make it impractical for the web but valuable for print and editing workflows.

Apple's default photo format since iOS 11. Excellent compression but limited cross-platform support. PicConverter accepts HEIC as input and converts it to any output format.

Uncompressed bitmap format from the early Windows era. Very large files with no quality advantage, but universal compatibility. Useful when an application requires raw, uncompressed pixel data.