JPG vs PNG - which has a better quality? Or some other format?

Image API
1

I have images for my ecommerce store in different formats. Wondering which format should I use for better quality? Is there some sort of recommendation?

2

It really depends on your use case and requirements.

png format

  1. It supports transparency, which makes it suitable for logos, graphics on a transparent background, or images with sharp edges (like text in an image)
  2. It also supports lossless compression, which means no loss of detail or visual quality
  3. The file sizes are generally high because of how information is stored in PNG format.

jpg format

  1. It doesn’t support transparency at all
  2. Only lossy compression is supported, but it can bring down the image size significantly, meaning every time you open and re-save a JPEG image, there will be some loss in details
  3. The algorithm is more suited to store photographic images with a lot of details and colors (unlike logos or graphics, which often use a lesser number of colors)
  4. The file sizes are small.

Therefore, “better quality” is tied to your use case.

  1. PNG is suitable for logos, images with text, graphics, etc.
  2. JPEG is suitable for photographs, product images, and user-upload pictures that don’t need transparency, and you want to get them to a small size while maintaining decent visual quality

If you have a PNG that doesn’t require transparency, ImageKit may automatically convert it to JPG if you turn on the auto-format setting in the dashboard or use f-auto parameter in the URL. You can read about this here - Image optimization