What you should know
WebP to PNG is mostly about rescuing an image saved from a website: browsers download it as WebP, yet many editing, office and printing applications still cannot open that format.
PNG is lossless: the decoded image is stored pixel for pixel, with no further degradation. The trade-off is that the resulting file is often much heavier than the original WebP.
Strengths
- Opens in every application, including older ones
- No added loss: the PNG stores exactly the decoded image
- Keeps transparency, useful for a logo or an icon
- A good intermediate step before editing
Limitations to know
- The file grows, sometimes several times over
- An animated WebP becomes a single still image
- Artefacts from a heavily compressed WebP remain visible
- Pointless if the image stays on the web, where WebP fits better
When to use it
Convert when an application rejects WebP, when you want to edit the image, or when it must go into a document. If you just need a compatible, light file for a photo, JPG is the better choice; keep PNG for screenshots, logos and images with transparency.
Quality, size and compatibility
The conversion adds no loss, but it does not undo the WebP's own compression either: the PNG faithfully reproduces the image as it was compressed. Expect a file two to five times heavier for a photo, less for a flat-colour drawing.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is my PNG larger than the WebP?
- Because PNG never compresses lossily: it keeps every pixel. WebP discards details that are hard to see. The extra weight is the price of compatibility.
- Is transparency preserved?
- Yes, PNG handles transparency just like WebP. Converting to JPG instead would make the transparent areas opaque.