PNG vs GIF — PNG for stills, skip GIF for animation when you can
For still images PNG wins on every axis. For animation, WebP or MP4 almost always beats GIF on size and quality.
Shrink PNG further (to WebP / AVIF)ImageMint, operated by Netwiz LLC (same company as FileHint). Browser-side conversion with lossless compression.Convert PNG to JPG (photo-like PNG)When you don't need transparency and the content is photographic, JPG is often smaller.
Quick verdict
- Still images → PNG, always.
- Short animation → Convention says GIF; WebP / MP4 / APNG are smaller and sharper.
- Reaction GIFs → Follow whatever the destination platform accepts.
Side-by-side
| Property | PNG | GIF |
|---|---|---|
| Colour depth | 16.7 million | Up to 256 |
| Transparency | 256-level alpha | 1-bit (on/off) |
| Animation | APNG only | Native |
| File size | Moderate | Huge when animated |
Replacing animated GIFs
- Convert to WebP:
ffmpeg -i input.gif -c:v libwebp -loop 0 out.webp. - Social platforms (X, Slack) often re-encode GIF uploads to video internally anyway.