Convert PNG to JPG
Convert PNG images to JPG format for better compression.
How to convert PNG to JPG — 3 steps
- 1
Add your PNG files
Drop one image or a whole batch into the box above. Conversion runs on your own machine, so a folder of high-resolution screenshots converts as fast as your CPU allows rather than as fast as your upload speed.
- 2
Pick a quality level
JPG quality is a trade between file size and artefacts. Around 80–90 is the usual sweet spot for photographs; drop lower only when size matters more than fine detail.
- 3
Download the JPGs
Save the converted files. Your PNGs are left exactly as they were, so you can re-run the conversion at a different quality if the first result is not what you wanted.
When JPG is the right choice — and when it is not
PNG and JPG compress in fundamentally different ways, and that difference decides which one suits a given image. PNG is lossless: every pixel survives the round trip exactly, which is why it is the right format for screenshots, logos, line art, text, and anything with hard edges or large areas of flat colour. JPG is lossy: it discards detail the eye is least likely to miss, which works beautifully for photographs with smooth gradients and continuous tone.
Convert to JPG when the image is photographic and the file is larger than it needs to be. A camera photo saved as PNG is often five to ten times bigger than the same image as a high-quality JPG, with no visible benefit — that is the classic case where converting is pure win.
Do not convert when the image is a screenshot, a diagram, a logo, or anything containing text. JPG's compression works on blocks of pixels, and hard black-on-white edges are exactly what it handles worst: letters pick up a grey halo, and thin lines blur. If the PNG is large because it is a screenshot, the answer is usually to resize or compress it rather than change its format.
Transparency disappears — and what to do about it
This is the single most common surprise when converting. PNG supports an alpha channel, so parts of the image can be fully or partially transparent. JPG has no alpha channel at all. When a transparent PNG becomes a JPG, those transparent regions have to become some solid colour — normally white, sometimes black — and that choice is permanent.
For a logo intended to sit on a coloured background, that is usually a dealbreaker: converting it to JPG gives you a logo in a white box. Keep it as PNG, or use WebP if you need both transparency and smaller files. For a photograph with no transparency, none of this applies and the conversion is clean.
It is also worth knowing that the conversion is one-way. JPG discards image data permanently, so converting back to PNG afterwards restores the file extension but not the lost detail — it simply wraps the already-degraded image in a lossless container, usually producing a bigger file than the JPG with no gain in quality. Keep the original PNG if there is any chance you will need it again.
Your files never leave your device
Conversion happens in your browser using the canvas built into it, so photographs — including personal ones you would rather not hand to a third party — are re-encoded on your own device.
Most online PDF sites upload your document to their servers, process it there, and keep a copy for minutes, hours, or longer. PilotPDF works differently: the page downloads a small processing engine into your browser, and your file is opened and edited in your device's memory using WebAssembly. Nothing is transmitted, so there is nothing for a server to store, leak, or scan. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the tool keeps working.
Read more about how this works in our privacy-by-design explainer.