Photography wants JPEG — until it must live online

A portrait, a still life, a lookbook plate: JPEG is still the paper the print shop and the form understand. Print stock keeps more of the grain. Screen stock is for mail and LMS caps.

If that same portrait will sit in a grid of twelve on your site, JPG to WebP is the publication cut. Compare the bench. Skin that turns to sand wants a heavier stock or the original JPEG.

Graphics want PNG — until the file is a photo in disguise

Logos, UI, type on a flat ground, stickers: PNG holds the edge. JPEG will halo the letters. If a logo was saved as JPEG by mistake, JPG to PNG stops further damage; it does not restore the pixels already thrown away.

A photographic PNG is usually a mistake from an export preset. PNG to JPG is the honest squeeze. Alpha becomes white, like a press sheet. If you need transparency, you never should have flattened it.

WebP is newsprint for the screen

Interface PNGs on a landing can weigh like a catalogue. PNG to WebP lets them onto the page. Transparency often survives; check the preview. The copy shop downstairs will not open WebP — bridge back with WebP to JPG.

There is no universal winner. The brief decides: campus printer, Cargo grid, contest form, offset cover. Convert on Pdfmira with the plate full-size on the table, not from a 160 px icon.