Image formats for icons, logos, and UI

An icon is not a photograph and shouldn't be encoded like one.

Why this matters today

SVG scales to any size for the cost of a few kilobytes. PNG is the fallback. JPG is almost always wrong here.

An icon should be light enough that you forget it loaded.

In practice

Here is the part that turns theory into a habit:

• Start small — a single file, a single page, a single test.
• Measure twice. Trust the numbers, not the vibe.
• Keep an undo path. Reversible decisions buy you courage.

A note on tooling

Every tool on this site runs in your browser unless we say otherwise. That changes the trade-offs: nothing to upload, nothing to retain, nothing to leak. The downside is a small ceiling on file size and a dependency on your device's CPU — both acceptable for most editorial workflows.

Takeaway

When in doubt, ship the SVG and stop worrying.