Web photosWebP
Modern browsers with WebP support
WebP offers strong compression for photos and animation.
PNG vs WebP
Lossless PNG versus flexible WebP for web graphics, animation, and archive-quality pixels.
Practical notes
WebP often wins for delivered web assets because it can encode photos and animation far more compactly.
PNG remains the safer choice when a pixel-perfect lossless master or legacy browser support is required.
Criteria
PNG
WebP
File size & compression
Lossless
Lossy or lossless
Transparency
Supported
Supported
Animation
Partial
Supported
Editing
Full editing in design and photo tools
Full editing in modern image tools
Openness
Open
Open
Browser support
Universal
All modern browsers
Typical uses
Logos and UI assets, Screenshots, Images with transparency, Lossless web graphics
Web images, Animated web graphics, Photos with transparency, Responsive image pipelines
Limitations
Larger files than lossy formats for photos, No native CMYK, Animation requires APNG support
Older browsers require fallbacks, Encoding can be slower than JPEG for photos, Some desktop tools lag in support
Attribute values come from the reviewed records on each format page.Read the methodology for source and review rules.
Use-case verdicts
Winners are conditional. A format wins only when the stated condition matches your workflow.
Web graphicsPNG
Lossless pixels or very old browser support
PNG keeps pixel-perfect rendering and universal support.
ArchivingPNG
Lossless master preservation
PNG is lossless and widely used for archives.
AnimationWebP
Small animated graphics
WebP animation is smaller than APNG in most cases.
PrintPNG
Proofing flat graphics
PNG is a lossless print preview format.