When PNG is the better choice
PNG is a lossless format designed for graphics. It shines for screenshots, user interface elements, diagrams, text, logos and illustrations: anything with flat colours and crisp edges, where lossy compression would introduce blurry halos. It also supports full alpha transparency, which JPG cannot do. Converting a WebP to PNG is the right move when you need to edit an image further without introducing more compression artefacts, or when a program or website accepts PNG but not WebP.
Many design tools, older versions of Microsoft Office, some content management systems and countless upload forms still do not accept WebP. Stickers and logos downloaded from websites are frequently WebP files with transparent backgrounds. Turning them into PNG keeps the transparency intact and makes them usable everywhere.
How it works
The file’s real format is detected from its contents. Still WebP images are decoded by libwebp running as WebAssembly in a background Web Worker, and the resulting pixels, including the alpha channel, are written to PNG by a WebAssembly PNG encoder. Animated WebP files are decoded by your browser and only the first frame is used. Since the work is done on your device there is no upload, no queue and no limit on how many files you convert.
Keeping file sizes reasonable
A PNG of a photograph can be very large. If your WebP is a photo rather than a graphic, consider these options:
- Convert to JPG with the WebP to JPG converter if you do not need transparency.
- Reduce the dimensions first with Resize Image; halving width and height cuts the pixel count by 75%.
- Keep the WebP for the web: every current browser displays it, and it is usually the smallest option.
For graphics, screenshots and logos, PNG files remain compact, and the result will look exactly like the original.