PNG Converter
Lossless and transparent: the right format for screenshots, logos and anything with text or sharp edges.
47 tools
Convert to PNG
Convert from PNG
Other PNG operations
What PNG is good at
PNG stores exactly the pixels it was given, with nothing approximated and nothing thrown away, and it supports full alpha transparency. That makes it the correct choice for screenshots, diagrams, logos, icons, charts, and anything where edges have to stay crisp or the background has to stay see-through. Save a screenshot as JPEG and the text grows a halo of grey mush; save it as PNG and it looks like the screen it came from.
What it is bad at
Photographs. A photograph as PNG is typically three to ten times the size of the same picture as a good-quality JPEG, with no visible benefit, because lossless compression has nothing repetitive to exploit in a field of leaves or a face. The rule of thumb that has held for twenty years still holds: photographs in JPEG, WEBP or AVIF; graphics, text and transparency in PNG. Where a PNG must stay a PNG but must also get smaller, the answer is fewer colours or an optimiser, not a re-save.
Making PNGs smaller without touching quality
PNG has real headroom for lossless shrinking. Reordering filters, dropping unused palette entries and stripping metadata often save twenty per cent or more, with the pixels arriving byte-identical. Converting a photographic PNG to a modern format is the bigger win when the destination allows it. And when transparency is not being used, PNG to JPEG at high quality usually cuts the file by three quarters without anyone noticing.
PNG or JPG for a screenshot, logo or photo
Screenshots, logos, diagrams and anything with text or a transparent background go to PNG; photographs go to JPG. Mix them up and the costs show immediately: a screenshot saved as JPG grows a grey fuzz around every letter, while a photograph saved as PNG becomes five times heavier with nothing to show for it. The common rescue jobs are both here. JPG to PNG restores a clean, lossless container (though it cannot bring back detail the JPEG already dropped); PNG to JPG turns a heavy photographic PNG into a normal photo file, filling any transparency with white or a colour you pick. Transparency is the deciding question: if the picture needs it, PNG or WEBP, never JPG.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my PNG so large?
Because it is probably a photograph. PNG stores every pixel exactly, which is right for graphics and wrong for photos, where lossless compression finds nothing to squeeze. Convert photographic PNGs to JPG or WEBP; keep PNG for screenshots, logos and transparency.
Does PNG lose quality when I compress it?
Not with lossless optimisation: the pixels come out byte-identical and the file shrinks by reordering filters and dropping unused palette entries. Lossy PNG compression reduces the number of colours, which is visible on photographs and usually invisible on graphics.
How do I make a PNG background transparent?
Transparent Background removes a flat backdrop by colour; Remove Background cuts out a photographed subject with a segmentation model. Either way the result must be saved as PNG or WEBP, because JPG cannot store transparency.