How to use PNG to JPG
- Choose a PNG image.
- Choose JPG quality and the transparency background.
- Convert and download the JPG.
Useful to know
JPG does not support transparency. White is the safest background for documents and product images.
How to convert a PNG to JPG
- Choose one PNG. The file stays in this browser tab, with a limit of 25 MB and 40 megapixels.
- Set Quality between 10 and 100. The field starts at 82. For a photograph, 80 to 92 is the useful range.
- Set Background colour. It starts at white, #ffffff. Transparent pixels are painted with that colour, because a JPG cannot store transparency.
- Select Convert to JPEG, read the width and file size on the result, and download. Keep the PNG if you may need the transparent original.
Why a photograph saved as PNG is the wrong file for an upload limit
PNG keeps every sample it was given. That is a virtue for a logo and a burden for a photograph. A camera picture is full of fine noise, soft gradients and tiny colour shifts. PNG stores them exactly, so a photo that was a few hundred kilobytes as a JPG often becomes several megabytes once it has been saved as PNG. Email hosts, school portals, job forms and older office software then reject the file, or they accept only JPG in the first place.
JPG is built for that kind of picture. It throws away detail the eye is less likely to notice, and the file shrinks. This converter does that once, in the browser, at the quality you set. It does not chase a kilobyte target and it does not resize unless the PNG was already the right size. If the form says under 200 KB, or names any other cap, convert here and then run the download through the image compressor, which can search for a JPG under a size you type. If the form also names a width and a height, resize the PNG first and convert the resized file. Spending JPG bytes on pixels you are about to throw away is how a careful quality setting still looks soft.
What happens to a transparent background
JPG has no transparent pixels. A PNG that shows a logo, a product cut-out or a screenshot with a clear background cannot keep that clear background. This page flattens it, and the flatten is not optional. It is how a JPG is able to exist at all.
Before the PNG is drawn, the canvas is filled with the background colour in the control. The control starts at white, #ffffff. Fully transparent pixels become that white. Pixels that were only partly transparent are blended onto it, the same way a browser composites a PNG onto a page. A soft shadow or a feathered edge becomes a soft edge of the chosen colour. It is not a fringe you can select and delete later. The JPG has no record of which pixels used to be clear, and the JPG to PNG converter will not put that record back. Keep the PNG.
Change the colour when white is the wrong page. A cut-out made for a navy header should be flattened onto that navy, or you will see a pale halo around every hair and every leaf. A marketplace photograph that must sit on pure white should stay on #ffffff. A document or a CV photo is almost always white as well. Pick the colour, then look at the preview on a background close to the real page before you download. The checkerboard in the preview well is only there so you can see the original PNG’s transparency. The JPG result is flat.
If the destination is a website that can show WebP, PNG to WebP can keep the transparency and is usually a smaller delivery file than the PNG. Use a JPG when the form, the inbox or the old app will not take PNG or WebP. Those are different jobs. Do not flatten a logo to JPG merely because you have heard that JPG is “for the web”.
How to choose the quality number
Quality runs from 10 to 100 and the field starts at 82. It affects only the JPG. PNG output on other tools ignores this number; here the output is always JPG, so the number always matters. For a photograph you will look at properly, stay between 80 and 92. Use 90 to 92 when the picture will be printed, placed in a layout, or saved once more as a JPG. Use 80 to 85 when the point of the conversion is a lighter email or a form that complains about size. The default of 82 sits in that second group and is a sensible first try for a photo.
Dropping below about 70 paints blocks into skies, walls and skin, and it muddies text. That is the setting people remember when they say JPG looks cheap. Pushing above 95 makes the file much larger for a difference that is hard to see on a photograph, though a screenshot full of small type can still benefit from staying high if you have been forced to convert it. Neither end of the scale is a way to hit an exact file size. Browser encoders do not land on a byte count you choose, and two browsers can produce files that are not identical. The result panel is the size you actually got.
The conversion is lossy even at 92. Opening the downloaded JPG and converting or compressing it again discards a little more. If the first result looks soft, or the background colour is wrong, change the settings and run them on the original PNG. Do not run them on the JPG you just made. One careful encode from the master beats three hopeful ones from the previous download.
When not to convert a PNG
Leave screenshots, charts, slides and paragraphs of text as PNG if you can. JPEG compression draws blocks and pale rings around letters and straight lines, which is exactly the detail a screenshot exists to keep. A screen capture is often smaller as PNG than people expect, once you compare it with a low-quality JPG of the same screen, and it is always cleaner. Logos, icons, line art and diagrams with a hard edge belong in the same group. Flattening them is reasonable only when a form refuses every other format, and then only at a high quality, after you have checked the edges in the preview at a large size.
Do not convert while you still mean to crop, resize or recolour. Edit the PNG, then convert once at the end. The crop tool removes margins by pixel coordinates. The resizer changes width and height without throwing the rest of the picture away. Both of them can hand you a PNG to bring back to this page. Converting first and cropping the JPG afterwards spends the quality budget on borders you did not need, then damages the crop with a second save.
Do not convert in the hope of improving a PNG. If that PNG is a photograph which was once a JPG, the damage from the earlier JPG is already in the pixels. A new JPG cannot repair it. It can only add more, or leave it alone at a high quality. And do not convert a file you will need with a clear background tomorrow. The flatten is permanent in the download.
Where a site can take a modern format, prefer that to a flattened JPG. JPG to WebP is the delivery step after you already have a photograph as JPG. WebP to JPG is the compatibility step when an app cannot open a WebP someone sent you. WebP to PNG keeps the conversion lossless and can keep transparency. None of those pages restore detail a lossy save has already thrown away. They change the container, which is also all this page does, plus the flatten and the quality setting.
PNG and JPG for the file in front of you
People ask which format is better as if the answer were a property of the letters. It is a property of the picture and of the place it has to be accepted. Use the table for the choice this page actually offers. It is not a reason to open a separate comparison URL, and it is not a claim that one format wins.
| Question | Keep the PNG | JPG from this page |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent pixels | Kept, including soft edges. | Flattened onto the background colour. The control starts at white, #ffffff. |
| A photograph’s file size | Often large, because the noise is stored exactly. | Usually much smaller at quality 80 to 92. Not an exact kilobyte target. |
| Screenshots, text and logos | Edges stay sharp. This is the file to keep. | Blocks and halos appear around letters, especially below quality 80. |
| Saving the picture again | Lossless. This is the master. | Another JPG save can throw away a little more. Convert again from the PNG. |
| A form that only accepts JPG | Often rejected, or rejected for size. | The file they can open. Flatten, preview the edges, then compress if a cap remains. |
What this page will and will not do
One image at a time. The drop zone accepts JPG, PNG and WebP, up to 25 MB and 40 megapixels, and this page’s button always writes a JPG. The browser decodes the file, fills the background, encodes at your quality and offers a download. Image Cosmos does not receive the picture. The download link lasts until you reload or close the tab. There is no batch queue and no zip of several results. An animated PNG is not a supported input. The page reads a still image.
Colour in the JPG is the colour the browser encoded. This page does not embed a print profile, and it does not promise that a navy you picked in the control will match a dyed fabric under shop lighting. If a printer asks for a specific profile, flatten here only as a preview and do the final export in software that can carry that profile. Check feathered edges at full size, keep the PNG, and compress only when a kilobyte cap is still unmet after the conversion.
A useful order, when a form is strict, is resize or crop the PNG to the pixels they asked for, convert once at 85 to 92 onto the background they will show, then compress only if the JPG is still over their cap. Skipping straight to a tiny quality number is what makes text and product edges look cheap. The original PNG is the file you return to if any of those three steps was wrong.
Related image tools
Frequently asked questions
Why convert a PNG to JPG?
Photographs saved as PNG are often too large for email and upload forms, and many of those forms only accept JPG. This page makes one JPG at the quality you choose, on your device. It is a poor swap for screenshots, logos and any file that still needs a transparent background.
What happens to transparency when a PNG becomes a JPG?
It is flattened. JPG cannot store a clear pixel. This page fills the canvas with the background colour first, then draws the PNG on top. Fully transparent pixels become that colour. Partly transparent pixels are blended onto it, so a soft edge becomes a soft edge of the same colour. You cannot get the clear background back from the JPG.
What background colour does this converter use?
White, #ffffff, until you change the colour control. White suits a document, a CV photo and a product shot that must sit on white. If the PNG is a cut-out designed for a coloured header or a brand panel, pick that colour before you convert, or you will see a pale halo. Check the preview, then download.
What JPG quality should I use?
Start at the default of 82, or anywhere from 80 to 92. Use 90 to 92 if you will print the picture or edit it once more. Use 80 to 85 if you mainly need a lighter email or form attachment. Below about 70, skies, walls and text start to block. Above 95 the file grows quickly for little visible gain. This page does not aim at an exact number of kilobytes.
Should I convert screenshots, text or logos to JPG?
Usually no. Hard edges and letters pick up JPEG blocks and pale rings, and a transparent logo loses its clear background. Keep the PNG. Convert only when a form refuses every other format, use a high quality, and inspect the edges. If the site can use WebP, that is the better way to shrink a graphic without flattening it.
Will the JPG be smaller than the PNG?
For a photograph, yes, often by a large margin, because JPG discards detail the PNG stored exactly. For a flat logo or a simple screenshot the saving can be small and the picture looks worse. The result panel shows the real file size. If a form also states a kilobyte cap, compress the JPG afterwards. This converter does not take a target size.
Which is better, PNG or JPG?
Neither, until you name the picture and where it has to go. PNG fits transparency, screenshots, logos and a master you will edit. JPG fits photographs that must be small or must open in older software and on forms. A site that accepts WebP should often use WebP rather than either. Converting does not make a bad original good, and it does not make a sharp logo better by putting it in a JPG.