Image Converter

What this image converter does

Drop any images the browser can display — PNG, JPEG, WebP, AVIF, GIF, BMP or SVG — pick a target format, and each file is re-encoded on your device. The most common jobs are converting WebP downloads into JPG or PNG that older software accepts, turning PNG screenshots into much smaller JPGs, and producing WebP or AVIF versions of website images. SVG logos are rasterised at their intrinsic size, which is the quickest way to get a PNG of a vector icon. AVIF is a common input too: photos saved by newer phones and images downloaded from sites that serve AVIF open here without any plugin and convert to JPG or PNG in one step. HEIC photos from an iPhone are decoded as well, but the dedicated HEIC to JPG page has the right defaults and explains the format's quirks.

Every file keeps its name with the extension swapped, the list shows the size before and after, and you can download files individually or as one ZIP. There is no per-file limit, no queue, and nothing is uploaded, so converting a folder of a few hundred product photos takes as long as your laptop needs — usually well under a minute.

How to use it

Select the target format first. For lossy formats (JPEG, WebP, AVIF) a quality slider appears; 85% is a good general default. When converting to JPEG, a background colour picker appears because JPEG cannot store transparency — any transparent area of a PNG or WebP is filled with that colour, white by default. Then drop the files, paste from the clipboard, or click to browse. Results appear within a second per image and update immediately if you change an option.

The settings you choose are remembered on this device. When the conversion is done, the 'Continue with' buttons pass the results to the image compressor for a further size reduction or to the resizer for exact dimensions — no re-selecting files, no second upload. Use the ZIP download to keep a batch together.

Common pitfalls

Transparency is the number-one surprise: converting a logo PNG to JPEG gives it a solid background because the format simply has no alpha channel. Choose WebP or PNG if transparency matters. Animated GIFs and animated WebPs are flattened to the first frame; a frame-by-frame animated converter is a different job. HEIC photos from iPhones cannot be decoded by most browsers, so they are not accepted here — export them as JPEG from the Photos app first.

AVIF encoding is slow by nature — expect a few seconds per large image even with the WebAssembly encoder used here. Converting a JPEG to PNG makes the file several times larger without adding any quality — the compression artefacts are already baked in. And like any canvas-based tool, the conversion drops EXIF metadata and embedded colour profiles, converting to sRGB; the picture looks the same, but camera data and GPS tags are gone.

Background: the image formats explained

PNG (1996) is lossless with full alpha transparency, ideal for screenshots, diagrams, icons and anything with sharp edges or text. JPEG (1992) is lossy and built for photographs: smooth gradients compress extremely well, but it has no transparency and shows ringing around hard edges at low quality. WebP (2010) covers both roles in one format — lossy or lossless, with alpha and animation — at roughly 25–35% smaller sizes than JPEG or PNG, and has been supported by every major browser since 2020. AVIF (2019), derived from the AV1 video codec, is smaller again, especially at low bitrates, and is now viewable everywhere modern, though encoders remain slow.

GIF is limited to 256 colours and survives only for simple animations. BMP is uncompressed and mostly a Windows legacy. SVG is not a pixel format at all but a vector description, which is why converting it to PNG requires choosing a rasterisation size. This tool decodes with the browser (so input support equals what your browser can display) but encodes with the same WebAssembly codecs Google's Squoosh uses — MozJPEG, libwebp, libavif and OxiPNG — rather than the crude encoders built into the canvas, so output is smaller and AVIF works in every modern browser. No server, no upload.

Where image conversion is needed

Websites serve WebP or AVIF to cut page weight and improve Core Web Vitals, while keeping a JPEG fallback. Print shops, older desktop software, Microsoft Office and many government upload forms still refuse WebP and want JPG or PNG. App stores require PNG screenshots of exact dimensions. Designers rasterise SVG icons to PNG for social media, favicons and email, which cannot display SVG. Product catalogues arrive as BMP or TIFF exports and need JPGs for the shop. Developers convert assets before embedding them as data URLs or committing them to a repository.

A sensible pipeline is: convert to the right format here, compress to the target size, then resize to the display dimensions. PNGs that hold QR codes or diagrams should stay PNG; photos should not. If the converted image is going into a stylesheet or JSON payload, encode it with the Base64 tool afterwards.

Frequently asked questions