HEIC vs JPG vs PNG

JPG (JPEG) is the universal photo format — lossy, small, and supported by everything, but no transparency. PNG is lossless with transparency, ideal for logos, screenshots and graphics, but larger for photos. HEIC is Apple's efficient photo format — smallest files at the same quality, but limited compatibility outside Apple's ecosystem.

For the same photo at the same visible quality, HEIC is smallest (roughly half of JPG), JPG is in the middle, and PNG is by far the largest because it stores every pixel losslessly. For photographs, PNG can be several times bigger than JPG.

PNG and HEIC can both be lossless and support an alpha (transparency) channel; JPG is always lossy and has no transparency. That's why converting a transparent PNG to JPG fills the transparent areas with a background colour.

For photographs, HEIC and JPG at high quality look essentially identical to the eye. For sharp-edged graphics and text, PNG stays crisp where JPG can show artefacts.

JPG and PNG open on virtually every device, browser and app made in the last 25 years. HEIC is only reliably supported on Apple devices and recent Windows/Android — which is why HEIC files often need converting before you can use them elsewhere.

Sharing a photo, uploading to a form, or printing → JPG. A logo, icon, screenshot, or anything with transparency → PNG. Saving camera storage on an iPhone → HEIC, then convert to JPG when you need to share it.