Which statement correctly describes the relationship between PNG and JPEG compression?

Which statement correctly describes the relationship between PNG and JPEG compression?

• A. PNG uses lossless compression, while JPEG uses lossless.
• B. PNG uses lossless compression, while JPEG uses lossy compression.
• C. Both PNG and JPEG are always lossy.
• D. PNG uses lossy compression, while JPEG uses lossless.

Answer: (B)

PNG and JPEG compress differently: PNG uses lossless compression, while JPEG uses lossy compression. Lossless means no image data is discarded, so the original image can be perfectly restored—this keeps sharp edges and text clean and supports transparency. Lossy compression, used by JPEG, drops some information to shrink the file size, which can introduce small artifacts but works well for photographs with smooth color variation. Because PNG preserves all data and JPEG sacrifices some data for smaller files, the statement that PNG is lossless and JPEG is lossy is the correct description.

PNG and JPEG compress differently: PNG uses lossless compression, while JPEG uses lossy compression. Lossless means no image data is discarded, so the original image can be perfectly restored—this keeps sharp edges and text clean and supports transparency. Lossy compression, used by JPEG, drops some information to shrink the file size, which can introduce small artifacts but works well for photographs with smooth color variation. Because PNG preserves all data and JPEG sacrifices some data for smaller files, the statement that PNG is lossless and JPEG is lossy is the correct description.