How Browsers Decode Images - Behind the Scenes of PNG, JPEG, and WebP
Last Updated: 03 Aug, 2026
How Browsers Decode Images: Behind the Scenes of PNG, JPEG, and WebP Images are one of the most important elements of modern websites. Whether you’re viewing product photos, social media posts, dashboards, or interactive applications, your browser is constantly downloading, decoding, and rendering images behind the scenes.
Most developers know that PNG, JPEG, and WebP differ in quality and compression, but far fewer understand what actually happens after an image reaches the browser.