Photo File Formats Explained: JPEG, PNG, HEIC, and RAW

Most people never think about file formats until something breaks — a photo won't open on a friend's computer, a website rejects an upload, a print comes back looking wrong, or the phone suddenly starts producing files ending in .HEIC that half the world can't read.

Here's what each format actually is, in practical terms, and how to decide which to use.

The one concept that explains everything: lossy vs lossless

Every format falls into one of two camps.

Lossy formats shrink files by permanently throwing away image data your eye probably won't miss. JPEG is the classic example. The savings are enormous — often 90 percent smaller than the raw data — and for photographs the quality cost is usually invisible.

The catch is that the loss compounds. Every time you open a JPEG, edit it, and save it again, it re-compresses and loses a little more. Do that ten times and you'll see it: blotchy skies, halos around edges, muddy detail. This is called generation loss, and it's the single most important practical fact about JPEG.

Lossless formats keep every pixel exactly. Files are bigger, but you can edit and re-save infinitely with zero degradation. PNG and TIFF are lossless.

Once you have that distinction, the rest is just knowing which format lands where.

JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)

What it is: the universal photo format. Lossy compression, roughly 30 years old, readable by literally everything.

Use it for: finished photos, anything you're emailing or uploading, anything going to a print service, your everyday camera output.

Don't use it for: screenshots, graphics with text, logos, or anything with sharp edges and flat color. JPEG's compression is built for the gradual tonal changes in photographs. Give it a screenshot of a spreadsheet and you'll get visible fuzz around every letter.

The practical rule: save at 80 to 90 percent quality. Above 90 you're adding file size for improvements nobody can see. Below 70 you start seeing artifacts. And avoid re-saving the same JPEG repeatedly — if you're doing serious editing, work from a copy and export a fresh JPEG at the end.

Storage note: a typical 12-megapixel phone photo saved as JPEG is 3 to 5 MB.

HEIC / HEIF (.heic)

What it is: the format iPhones have used by default since 2017. Lossy like JPEG, but with much better compression — roughly half the file size at the same visual quality.

Why Apple switched: the math is compelling. Half the size means twice as many photos on the same phone, half the iCloud bill, faster uploads.

The problem: compatibility. Support has improved a lot — Windows 11 and recent Android handle it, and most browsers now do too — but you'll still hit walls. Some print services reject it. Some older software won't open it. Some websites silently fail on upload.

What to do: on iPhone, go to Settings → Camera → Formats. "High Efficiency" keeps HEIC; "Most Compatible" switches to JPEG.

The better setting for most people is separate: Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic. This keeps HEIC on the phone for the space savings but converts to JPEG whenever you transfer files off. Best of both.

If you already have a pile of HEIC files and need JPEGs, batch conversion tools exist for every platform, and on Mac you can select files in Finder and use Quick Actions → Convert Image.

HEIC also handles Live Photos and the depth data behind Portrait Mode. Converting to JPEG discards those. If a Portrait Mode photo matters to you in its editable form, keep the HEIC.

PNG (.png)

What it is: lossless format designed for graphics rather than photographs. Supports transparency.

Use it for: screenshots, logos, diagrams, anything with text, anything needing a transparent background, and any image you'll edit repeatedly.

Don't use it for: photographs you're storing in bulk. A photo saved as PNG can be five to ten times larger than the same photo as JPEG, with no visible quality benefit at normal viewing.

The transparency thing is the reason PNG is irreplaceable. If you sell digital products, make printables, or do any design work, PNG with a transparent background is how a logo sits cleanly on a colored surface. JPEG cannot do this — it will always fill transparency with white.

RAW (.CR3, .NEF, .ARW, .DNG, and dozens more)

What it is: not really an image file. It's the unprocessed sensor data straight off the camera, before any of the decisions — white balance, contrast, sharpening — that turn readings into a picture.

Why it matters: enormous editing latitude. A RAW file holds detail in blown-out skies and dark shadows that a JPEG has already discarded. Recovering a badly exposed shot is often possible in RAW and impossible in JPEG.

The costs: files are 20 to 80 MB each instead of 3 to 5. Every camera manufacturer uses its own proprietary format, and support for old ones can lag. And RAW files look flat and disappointing straight out of camera — they're meant to be edited, not viewed.

Should you shoot RAW? If you edit your photos with intent, yes. If you look at them on your phone and share them, no — you'll pay a large storage cost for latitude you never use.

On DNG: Adobe's open RAW format, designed as a universal archive standard. Some cameras shoot it natively; others can be converted to it. It's a reasonable hedge against a proprietary format becoming unreadable in twenty years, though in practice the major formats have been well supported.

Many cameras and phones can shoot RAW + JPEG together. You get an immediately usable file plus the editable original. Costs double storage but removes the decision.

TIFF (.tif, .tiff)

What it is: lossless, high-quality, and old. The traditional archival and print production format.

Use it for: scanning photos and documents you want a permanent master of, and print work where a shop specifically requests it.

Don't use it for: anything routine. Files are huge, and PNG covers most of what non-professionals need from a lossless format.

Its main modern relevance is scanning. If you're digitizing family photos once and want a master file that will never degrade, scan to TIFF, then make JPEG copies for daily use.

WEBP (.webp)

What it is: Google's web-focused format. Comes in both lossy and lossless flavors, and is meaningfully smaller than JPEG or PNG at comparable quality.

Where you meet it: downloading images from the web. Many sites now serve WEBP automatically, so images you save may arrive in a format some older software won't open.

Should you use it? For your own website, yes — smaller images mean faster pages. For your photo archive, no. It's a delivery format, not a storage format.

AVIF is the newer competitor, smaller still, with support growing quickly. Same advice: fine for web delivery, not for archiving.

GIF (.gif)

Ancient, limited to 256 colors, terrible for photographs. Its one remaining use is short looping animations, and even that is being replaced by short video files that look better and weigh less.

Never save a photo as a GIF.

Quick reference

What to actually keep long-term

For a family archive, high-quality JPEG is the right answer for almost everything. It's universally readable, it will still be universally readable in thirty years, and the file sizes let you afford multiple backups.

Keep RAW files only for photos you genuinely intend to edit. A hard drive full of RAW files from 2014 that you'll never open is expensive storage doing nothing.

The one thing worth spending storage on: if you scan old prints or negatives, keep the lossless master. That's the only copy of something physical that may not survive, and you don't want to have to scan it twice.

Next in this series: How to Free Up Phone Space Without Deleting Memories