JPG to PNG

How to use the JPG to PNG

1. Drop a JPG onto the box, or click to choose one from your device.
2. Optionally switch on transparency to knock out a flat white background.
3. Press Convert to PNG, then download the result.

What changes and what does not

JPG is lossy: detail was permanently discarded when the file was first saved. PNG is lossless: it stores every pixel exactly. Converting from one to the other preserves whatever survives in the JPG, but it cannot restore what was already thrown away.

The practical consequence is size. A photo saved as PNG is typically three to five times larger than the JPG it came from, because PNG cannot exploit the perceptual shortcuts that make JPG small. The gain is that repeated editing and re-saving no longer degrades the image — every JPG save loses a little more.

When converting is worth it

• Before editing. Convert once, edit in PNG, and export back to JPG at the end. This avoids generation loss across a dozen saves.
• Screenshots and diagrams. Anything with text, sharp edges or flat colour looks far better in PNG, and is often smaller too.
• When you need transparency. JPG has no alpha channel at all.
• For a platform that requires PNG — some app store assets, print workflows and logo submissions.

Converting an ordinary photograph purely for storage is usually the wrong move: you get a much larger file with no visible improvement.

About the transparency option

The white-to-transparent option scans every pixel and clears the alpha channel wherever all three colour channels exceed your threshold. On a logo or scanned document with a flat background, this works well.

On a photograph it will not — JPG compression introduces subtle colour variation, and clouds, snow and white shirts are also near-white. Lowering the threshold removes more background but also eats into light parts of the subject. For photographic cut-outs you need edge-aware selection, which is a job for an image editor.

Frequently asked questions