Read this first: what JPG to PNG can and cannot do
PNG is lossless, and Convertisio writes the decoded JPG pixels into the PNG exactly. From that moment on, the image will not lose any more quality, however many times you open, edit and save it.
What the conversion cannot do is reverse JPG compression. The detail a JPG discarded when it was saved is gone, so any blockiness, colour banding or fuzzy edges in your photo appear in the PNG exactly as before. A PNG made from a JPG looks the same as the JPG; it is simply stored differently.
It will also be heavier. For photographs, a PNG is usually several times larger than the JPG it came from, because lossless compression has to record every speck of grain and texture instead of approximating it.
Reasons it is still worth doing
- A stable copy for editing. Every time a JPG is edited and saved, it is compressed again and loses a little more. A PNG can be saved as often as you like without that penalty.
- Software or forms that insist on PNG. Some design tools, icon generators and upload portals accept PNG only.
- Preparing for a transparent cut-out. PNG can hold transparency, so it is the right container if you plan to remove the background in an image editor afterwards. The conversion itself does not remove anything, though: a PNG made from a JPG starts out fully opaque.
- Screenshots and scans that were saved as JPG. Moving them to PNG prevents further damage when you annotate or crop them, even though the existing artefacts remain.
A simple workflow for editing photos
- Convert the original JPG to PNG once, at full size, unless you already know the final dimensions you need.
- Crop, retouch, annotate or combine the image in your editor, saving the PNG as often as you like. None of those saves adds compression loss.
- When the image is finished, export it in the format its destination needs: PNG to JPG for sharing and printing, or PNG to WebP for a website.
Working in this order means the photo goes through lossy compression only once more, at the very end, instead of after every edit.
Better options for some goals
If your aim is a smaller file for a website, PNG is the wrong direction, because it makes photos much bigger. Convert JPG to WebP instead, which usually reduces the size while keeping a similar look.
If you only need to share or store a photo, keep the JPG. It is already compact and opens everywhere, and converting it to PNG adds bulk without adding detail. The same goes for large photo archives: storing them as PNG can multiply the space they take up.
JPG and PNG side by side
| JPG | PNG | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy | Lossless |
| Transparency | Not supported | Supported (a converted JPG starts fully opaque) |
| Size of a photo | Compact | Usually several times larger |
| Repeated edits and saves | Lose a little each time | No further loss |
| Sharp text and lines | Prone to artefacts | Kept exactly |
| Animation | Not supported | APNG variant only |
| Compatibility | Universal | Universal |
Details that are handled for you
Orientation. Phones often store photos sideways and rely on an EXIF tag to rotate them on screen, which some apps ignore. Convertisio applies that orientation to the pixels, so the PNG appears upright everywhere.
Metadata. EXIF data such as camera model, GPS location and capture date is not copied. That keeps your location private when you share the PNG, but copyright and caption fields are dropped too.
File detection. Files are identified by their content, not their extension, so .jpg, .jpeg and .jfif all work, and a file whose name does not match its real format is still handled correctly.
Size control. Because PNGs of photos get large, consider Settings → Size. Scaling by a percentage or fitting within a maximum width or height keeps the PNG manageable without distorting it.
Colour. Output is in sRGB, so photos captured in a wide gamut such as Display P3 may look slightly less saturated.
Batches. Up to 10 photos can be converted in one go, one after another, and downloaded together as a ZIP.