FormatDrop
How-To Guide

How to Optimize and Convert Images for the Web

Images account for 50–80% of a typical web page's total file size. Choosing the wrong format, uploading unresized camera photos, or skipping compression causes slow page loads, poor Core Web Vitals scores, and higher bandwidth costs. This guide covers the complete image optimization workflow — format selection, sizing, compression — using free tools.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. 1

    Choose the right format for your image type

    Photographs (complex scenes, gradients): use WebP (primary) + JPG (fallback). Logos, icons, illustrations with flat colours: use SVG if vector, or PNG if raster. Screenshots and UI graphics: use WebP or PNG. Animated graphics: use WebP animated or GIF (for email/Slack compatibility). Transparent images: use WebP or PNG. Rule of thumb: WebP for everything photographic, PNG for everything with sharp edges and transparency.

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  2. 2

    Resize to the display dimensions

    Upload images at the size they'll be displayed, not at original camera resolution. A 3000×2000 camera photo uploaded for a 600px-wide blog image is 25× larger than needed. Standard sizes: hero images 1920×1080, article images 1200×800, thumbnails 400×300, product images 800×800. Use an image editor to resize before converting — smaller dimensions mean proportionally smaller files regardless of format.

  3. 3

    Convert JPG/PNG to WebP for web delivery

    Go to formatdrop.com/jpg-to-webp or formatdrop.com/png-to-webp. Upload your resized image and download the WebP version. WebP is typically 25–35% smaller than JPG and 26% smaller than lossless PNG at equivalent quality. All modern browsers support WebP. Use the HTML <picture> element with a JPG fallback for maximum compatibility.

  4. 4

    Implement properly in your website code

    Use the HTML <picture> element: <picture><source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp"><img src="image.jpg" alt="description"></picture>. This serves WebP to browsers that support it and JPG to others. Also add loading="lazy" to images below the fold, and set explicit width and height attributes to prevent layout shifts (a Core Web Vitals factor).

Why convert JPG to WebP?

Google's Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics — used in search ranking — include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how quickly the largest visible element (usually an image) loads. Serving unoptimized images directly degrades LCP scores, which can affect search rankings and user experience. The three levers for image optimization are: (1) Correct format — WebP/AVIF instead of JPG reduces sizes 25–50%. (2) Correct dimensions — serving a 400px thumbnail at 3000px resolution wastes 56× the bandwidth. (3) Compression — encoding at quality 80–85 instead of 100 reduces sizes by 50–70% with no perceptible quality change. Applying all three can reduce total page image weight from 10 MB to under 1 MB — a 10× improvement that dramatically affects page load times.

Your files never leave your device

FormatDrop runs the conversion engine entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly. No file upload. No server. Nothing stored. You can verify this by opening DevTools → Network tab and watching: zero upload requests.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best image format for websites?
WebP is the best general-purpose format for websites today — it's 25–35% smaller than JPG and 26% smaller than PNG lossless, supports transparency, and is supported by all modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari 14+). For photographic content on the most modern browsers, AVIF is even better (~50% smaller than JPG) but has slightly less support. Use WebP as your primary format with JPG as a fallback for maximum compatibility.
Should I use WebP or AVIF?
WebP is the safer default — it's supported by all modern browsers including Safari 14+ (released 2020). AVIF requires Safari 16+ (released 2022), which excludes older iPhones and Macs. For maximum reach, serve WebP. If you can use the <picture> element with both formats, serve AVIF first (for browsers that support it) and WebP as a fallback — both are far better than JPG for web delivery.
How do I serve WebP with a JPG fallback?
Use the HTML <picture> element: `<picture><source srcset="photo.webp" type="image/webp"><img src="photo.jpg" alt="Description" width="800" height="600"></picture>`. Browsers that support WebP use the <source>; browsers that don't use the <img> fallback. Most modern image CDNs (Cloudflare Images, AWS CloudFront with image optimization, Fastly) handle this automatically.
What resolution should web images be?
Match the image dimensions to the CSS display size — there's no benefit to serving larger images. For retina/high-DPI displays, provide 2× versions via srcset: `<img srcset="photo-800.webp 800w, photo-1600.webp 1600w" sizes="(max-width:800px) 800px, 1600px" src="photo-800.jpg">`. This serves the right resolution to each device. As a starting point: desktop hero images at 1920px wide, article images at 1200px, thumbnails at 600px.
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