You’ve finished the edit and the download button asks one last question: JPEG or PNG? The honest answer takes about a paragraph — the reasoning takes the rest of this page.

The short version: JPEG for photos you’re done with, PNG for files you’ll edit again or that need transparency.

What the two formats actually do

JPEG (1992) is lossy: it throws away the fine detail your eyes are worst at seeing and stores the rest. That trade is why a 12-megapixel photo lands at 2–4MB instead of 30+. The quality setting controls how much detail is discarded — at 90, the loss is essentially invisible on screens; at 60, skies band and edges get mosquito artifacts. JPEG has no transparency.

PNG (1996) is lossless: every pixel comes back exactly as written. It compresses by finding repeated patterns, so it excels on screenshots, line art and flat color — and barely compresses photographic noise at all. Full alpha transparency.

The decision table

Your situation	Download
Sharing a photo online, messaging, printing	JPEG (quality 85–92)
A form or upload box with a size limit	JPEG — PNG rarely fits
Keeping a master for more editing later	PNG
Source has transparency you want kept	PNG
Screenshot, diagram, UI graphic, text overlay	PNG
Archival copy of a once-ever photo	PNG (storage is cheap)

The re-editing trap

Every JPEG save is a small loss — and the losses compound. Edit a JPEG, export JPEG, edit that export, export again, and the artifacts stack visibly by the third or fourth round. If you know you’ll come back to a photo, keep one PNG master and export JPEG copies from it for each use. The master is bigger; it’s also the only version that never degrades.

This matters less than it used to (a single re-save at 90 is nearly free), but for photos you’ll iterate on — product shots, portfolio work — the PNG master habit is the difference between an archive and a memory of an archive.

What about file size after filtering?

Worth knowing: some filters change compressibility. Grain is the big one — it’s per-pixel noise, which is the thing JPEG is worst at compressing. A grained export can run 20–40% larger than the same photo ungrained at the same quality. Sharpen has a milder version of the same effect (more high-frequency detail = more to store). If file size is tight, that’s not an argument against grain — it’s an argument for knowing the cost.

And WebP, AVIF, HEIC?

This editor exports JPEG and PNG deliberately: they’re the pair that everything — browsers, forms, printers, operating systems — opens without thinking. WebP and AVIF compress better but still hit compatibility walls in older apps and some upload forms; HEIC is an input format (iPhone photos), not something you want to hand to a form. If you need WebP specifically, a converter is a separate job. One edge case in our own export menu: “Same as input” is honored only for JPEG and PNG sources — feed it a WebP, GIF or BMP and the export falls back to JPEG.

Try it on a real file: export the same edit as JPEG at 90 and as PNG, compare the sizes, and you’ll feel the trade-off faster than any table can teach it. The editor shows each output’s byte size before you save.

Frequently asked questions

Does exporting as PNG keep my photo at higher quality?

PNG keeps the export pixel-perfect — every filtered pixel is stored exactly. But it can't restore detail the source didn't have: a JPEG original re-saved as PNG just becomes a bigger file with the same JPEG artifacts baked in. PNG is the right 'master' format for further editing, not a quality upgrade.

What JPEG quality number should I use?

85–92 is the sweet spot for photos — visually indistinguishable from the original at normal viewing size, roughly half the file size of 100. Below ~70, JPEG artifacts (blockiness in skies, ringing around edges) become visible. The quality slider only applies to JPEG output because PNG doesn't have one — it's hidden when Format is explicitly PNG; under "Same as input" it stays visible but is used only when the output actually lands on JPEG.

Why did my exported PNG come out so much bigger than the original JPEG?

That's lossless math, not a bug. PNG stores every pixel exactly and can only compress by finding patterns — photographic detail is essentially random to it, so a filtered photo often lands at 3–8× the JPEG size. If file size matters and the image is a photo, JPEG is simply the right format.

What happens to transparency when I export?

JPEG has no alpha channel — transparent areas flatten onto the background. PNG preserves alpha exactly. If your source is a PNG with transparency (a sticker, a logo, a cutout), export as PNG unless you deliberately want it flattened.