Image Formats & Conversion Guides

A Mac screenshot taken in the most compatible format is a PNG, and plenty of upload forms want a JPG. Preview and Finder both convert one with nothing installed. Apple's steps for each, and what happens to transparency.

A Mac opens HEIC photos with nothing installed, and it has three built-in ways to turn one into a JPG. Here is which to use, with Apple's steps for each.

Windows can ask for two Store extensions before it will open a HEIC photo, and opening isn't converting. Here's the route that needs neither.

One Camera setting makes new iPhone photos JPG. A second decides what your computer receives. Neither touches the photos you already took.

Both phones can already make a PDF from a photo, if you know where the option hides. Here are the built-in routes, and when a browser tool is the better pick.

The right conversion for a small, flat preview or thumbnail - and why a logo with transparency should go to PNG instead.

Pull a clean, lossless still out of a GIF, including the first frame of an animation. What the conversion keeps and what it cannot recover.

The right conversion when you need to keep transparency or a lossless copy - and when converting to JPG is the better call instead.

A BMP lands in your inbox or a scan folder and it is far too big. Converting it to JPG takes a second - here is the whole process, and the one case where JPG is the wrong target.

PNG is the right landing format for a HEIC photo you plan to edit, not one you just want to share. Here is what the lossless conversion does, and doesn't, do.

PNG to SVG isn't a normal conversion — it's tracing, and it only works on some images. Here's how to do it and what actually comes out.

Embedding an image directly in your code is occasionally exactly right and usually a trap. Here's the difference.

Plenty of forms accept a PDF and nothing else. Turning your photo or scan into one takes seconds.

Both sides of an ID, a multi-page contract, a stack of receipts — here's how to get them into one properly ordered PDF.

iPhones save photos in a format Windows, older software, and plenty of upload forms still choke on — here's the quickest way out.

You saved an image from the web and got a file your software refuses to open. Here's the fix, and the reason it happened.

SVG is the better format right up until something refuses to accept it. Here's how to convert without regret.

The cheapest page-speed win available, and it takes seconds. Here's when it's worth doing and when it isn't.

A format from the early Windows era that occasionally still turns up — usually attached to a very large file.

PNGs are often several times larger than they need to be. Converting to JPG is usually the fix — with one important exception.

Converting JPG to PNG is easy. Knowing what it actually gets you — and what it definitely doesn't — is the useful part.

The uncompressed Windows format from the early PC era - why a BMP is enormous, where it still turns up, and what to use instead.

The format that refuses to die: 256 colours, looping animation, and a place in internet culture long after better formats arrived.

The format almost every photo online is saved in - what it does well, what it quietly costs you, and when to reach for something else.

The format behind almost every logo, screenshot, and icon with a see-through background: lossless, transparent, and much heavier than JPG for photos. What a PNG file actually is.

The format every iPhone photo is saved in by default: a modern container that roughly halves file size, yet one that a lot of software still cannot open. What a .heic file actually is.

The image format print shops and archives rely on: lossless, high bit-depth, and far too heavy for the web. What's inside a TIFF, why it's so big, and what to do when a site won't take one.

The image format that stores a picture as shapes written in text, so it stays sharp at any size. What's inside an SVG, what it's for, and where it gets refused.

They aren't really rivals for the same job. One is drawing instructions, the other a grid of pixels - which settles the choice before file size ever comes up.

Both handle photographs well, so the real question is smaller-file-for-the-web versus opens-everywhere. Here's how to call it, and when converting won't help.

AVIF squeezes files smaller; WebP is easier to make and opens in more software. For most sites one of them is the clear pick — here's which, and why.

The format that squeezes a photo smaller than JPEG or WebP by borrowing the AV1 video codec's compression. What it is, which browsers open it, and its one real catch.

The same photo, half the size on your iPhone or readable everywhere else. Which one you want depends entirely on where the picture is going next.

Two formats, one decision that turns almost entirely on whether your image is a photograph or a graphic. Here's how to call it every time.

The format behind half the 'why won't this open' moments online — smaller than JPG and PNG, supported by every browser, and rejected by plenty of desktop software.

Both formats keep transparency, so the choice for a logo comes down to a single trade: WebP is smaller, PNG opens everywhere. Here's which to reach for.

A plain-language map of the formats you actually run into — what each is good at, what it's terrible at, and which one to reach for.

One stores a grid of pixels, the other stores drawing instructions — which is why the size you pick when exporting a PNG is permanent.