About PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
If you are saving a screenshot, a logo, a chart, or anything with sharp edges and flat colors, PNG is usually the right answer. It compresses without losing a single pixel of information, so text stays crisp and colors stay exact no matter how many times the file is opened and re-saved.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) was created in 1996 as a patent-free replacement for GIF and has been a web standard ever since. It added two things GIF never had: full 24-bit color and an 8-bit alpha channel — smooth, partial transparency — which is why PNG became the default for logos and interface graphics layered over other content.
Its weakness is photographs. Because PNG refuses to throw any data away, a photo saved as PNG can be five to ten times larger than a good JPEG with no visible benefit. Convertmaxxing converts PNG to and from JPG, WebP, AVIF, and more, entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded, and it is free.
Strengths
- Completely lossless — pixels survive unlimited re-saves exactly as they were
- Full alpha-channel transparency, essential for logos and overlays
- Universal support across browsers, editors, and operating systems
- Ideal for screenshots, text, line art, and flat-color graphics
Limitations
- Large files for photographs — often several times the size of a JPEG
- No lossy mode, so you cannot trade a little quality for a much smaller file
- No practical animation support — APNG exists but is rarely used