Photo Formats Explained: HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP and RAW

There is no single best photo format. JPG is the safe choice for sharing because everything opens it. PNG is lossless and supports transparency, but photos come out very large. WebP and AVIF are built for websites. HEIC saves space on Apple devices but opens in few places. RAW keeps the sensor data for editing. The table and sections below explain the differences, using the format specifications and browser data checked on 31 October 2026.

The formats at a glance

	HEIC	JPG	PNG	WebP	AVIF	RAW
Compression	Lossy (HEVC); lossless possible	Lossy	Lossless	Lossy or lossless	Lossy or lossless	Sensor data, minimal processing
Transparency	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
Animation or image sequences	Yes	No	Yes (APNG)	Yes	Yes	—
Bits per channel	8 up to 16	8	1 to 16	8	8, 10 or 12	Varies by camera
Metadata	Exif, XMP	Exif, XMP	Exif (eXIf chunk), XMP (iTXt)	Exif, XMP	—	Varies; DNG is based on TIFF
Web browsers	Safari 17 and later only	All	All	All current major browsers	All current major browsers	—

“—” means our sources do not cover it. Sources: the HEIF technical summary, MDN’s image format guide, the PNG specification, Google’s WebP docs, the AVIF specification, the US Library of Congress camera raw and DNG descriptions, and Can I use data.

HEIC

HEIC is a HEIF file whose images are compressed with HEVC. It is the default format on iPhones, and Apple says HEIF offers “better compression than JPEG”, using less storage “while preserving the same visual quality”. HEIF can hold several images in one file, burst photos, transparency, depth maps, and up to 16 bits per sample.

The downside is compatibility. According to Can I use, only Safari 17 and later display HEIC; Chrome, Edge and Firefox do not. Windows needs Microsoft’s HEIF and HEVC extensions. HEIC vs JPG covers this in more detail.

JPG

JPG (JPEG) is, in MDN’s words, “the most widely used lossy compression format for still images”. It stores 8 bits per color channel, has no transparency, and MDN lists support in all versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari. JPG files can carry Exif data such as the capture date and camera model. Because it is lossy, every re-save compresses the image again, so edit from the original.

JPG can also carry HDR: Android’s Ultra HDR format adds a gain map to a JPEG, and readers that don’t support it show the normal image.

PNG

PNG uses lossless compression and supports full transparency, with 1 to 16 bits per sample. The third edition of the specification, a W3C Recommendation since June 2025, added animated PNG (APNG), an eXIf chunk for Exif data, and HDR support (HLG and PQ).

For photos, lossless means large. In our test, a 12-megapixel iPhone 7 photo was 0.88 MB as HEIC, 1.49 MB as a JPG at quality 90, and 12.32 MB as a PNG. PNG suits screenshots, graphics, logos and images that need transparency. For photos, use it only when you want to avoid a second round of lossy compression.

WebP

WebP is Google’s format for the web. It supports lossy and lossless compression, transparency in both modes, animation, and Exif and XMP metadata. Google says lossless WebP images are 26% smaller than PNGs and lossy ones are 25–34% smaller than comparable JPEGs; these are Google’s figures, not our tests.

All current major browsers display WebP. On Mac, Safari 14 and 15 also need macOS 11 Big Sur or later. According to MDN, lossy WebP stores 8-bit color with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, and lossless WebP uses 8 bits per channel.

AVIF

AVIF stores AV1-compressed images in the same HEIF container that HEIC uses. It supports lossy and lossless compression, transparency, image sequences, HDR and wide color gamut, with 8, 10 or 12 bits per channel. Can I use lists support from Chrome 85, Firefox 93 (still images; image sequences from 113), Edge 121 and Safari 16.4.

RAW

RAW is not one format. The Library of Congress describes camera raw as “a group of proprietary formats” that hold sensor data with “a very modest amount of processing”, so usable images need more processing on a computer. DNG is Adobe’s raw format, based on TIFF, and Apple ProRAW is closely related to DNG 1.6.

Raw files are large. Apple says a ProRAW photo is about 25 MB at 12 megapixels and about 75 MB at 48 megapixels. Two 48-megapixel ProRAW files from an iPhone 16 Pro in our samples were 83.6 and 86.0 MB; a HEIC from the same phone at the same resolution was 7.69 MB (different scenes, so treat this only as a sense of scale).

Which format to use

• Sending to friends, posting, upload forms: JPG.
• Screenshots, graphics, logos, anything with transparency: PNG.
• Images on your own website: WebP or AVIF, with a JPG fallback for older browsers.
• Keeping photos on Apple devices: HEIC, the iPhone default.
• Serious editing: RAW or ProRAW, then export a JPG to share.
• Archive: keep the original the camera saved, whether HEIC or RAW, and make copies in other formats when you need them.

Convert HEIC in your browser

heicly converts HEIC and HEIF photos to JPG, PNG or PDF in your browser, and your photos are not uploaded. The converter below makes JPGs at quality 90 by default and keeps the capture date and camera details; location is added only if you turn it on.

Not sure whether to pick JPG or PNG? See HEIC to JPG or PNG.

Sources

Checked on 31 October 2026: Apple: HEIF and HEVC; Apple: About ProRAW; HEIF technical summary (Nokia); MDN: image file type and format guide; W3C PNG Specification, Third Edition; Google: WebP and its container specification; AV1 Image File Format (AVIF); Android: Ultra HDR image format; Library of Congress: camera raw formats and DNG 1.6; Can I use data for HEIF, WebP, AVIF and APNG.