JPG vs PNG vs WebP: a 60-second cheat sheet
Three formats, three jobs. Which one for photos, which one for screenshots, which one for stickers — and why 'it depends' is wrong 90% of the time.
Image formats confuse people because the honest answer is 'it depends'. But it depends on exactly one thing: what's in the image. Here's the whole decision tree.
JPG — for photos, full stop
JPG compresses gradients and natural scenes beautifully and throws away detail your eyes can't detect. A photo as a JPG is a fraction of the same photo as a PNG. Its one weakness: no transparency, and text/edges get fuzzy.
PNG — for sharp edges and transparency
Screenshots, logos, UI mockups, anything with text or flat color: PNG keeps every pixel crisp. It's also the only mainstream format here with a full alpha channel, which is why every sticker, meme and cutout travels as a PNG. The cost: photos as PNGs are enormous.
WebP — the overachiever
WebP does JPG's job ~30% smaller and PNG's job with transparency included. Browser support is universal now. The only reason not to use it everywhere is the occasional ancient upload form that doesn't recognize the extension.