SVG vs PNG icons: which format to use and when

Every icon on Icon Pantry downloads as SVG or PNG, and people ask which one to pick more than anything else. The short version: SVG for anything built with code, PNG for tools that only take images. The rest of this guide explains why, with the exact sizes to export when you do need a PNG.

The difference in one sentence

An SVG is a set of drawing instructions (draw a circle here, a line there), while a PNG is a grid of colored pixels. Instructions can be redrawn at any size, so an SVG is always sharp. Pixels can only be stretched, so a PNG gets blurry when you scale it past the size it was saved at.

SVG vs PNG at a glance

When to use SVG

Websites and web apps

SVG is the default for the web. One file stays crisp on every screen, from an old laptop to a 3x phone display, and an icon is usually smaller than 1 KB. Paste the SVG inline and it inherits the text color through currentColor, so hover states and dark mode need one line of CSS instead of extra files.

.button { color: #14162b; }
.button:hover { color: #3047ff; } /* the icon follows */

React, Vue and other frameworks

Open any icon, choose the React tab and copy the component. It is the same SVG wrapped in a function, so it takes size, color and stroke as props. Our usage guide shows the full setup for HTML, React, Next.js and CSS.

Figma, Sketch and Illustrator

Paste or drop the SVG and you get real vector shapes: strokes you can thicken, colors you can swap and paths you can edit. A PNG in Figma is just a picture.

Anything that might change size later

Logos in a header, icons in a print layout, a sign or a large banner: if you do not know the final size, keep the SVG. You can always make a PNG from it later, never the other way around without losing quality.

When to use PNG

PNG wins wherever an app expects a normal image. These tools either do not accept SVG or handle it unevenly:

• PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides (newer PowerPoint takes SVG, but PNG is safer for sharing)
• Canva free plan uploads, Word and Google Docs
• Email newsletters and signatures, since many email clients block SVG
• Social media posts and stories
• Spreadsheets, PDFs made by other tools, and older software

What size PNG to export

Export at two to four times the size the icon will be displayed. High-density screens show two or three pixels for every CSS pixel, and slides get projected large. These sizes cover nearly every case:

On any icon page, pick the PNG size from the menu (16px up to 1024px), set a color if you want one, and download. The PNG has a transparent background, so it sits cleanly on colored slides.

Converting between the two

Going from SVG to PNG is lossless at whatever size you choose. Use our free SVG to PNG converter, which runs in your browser without uploading the file. Going from PNG to SVG means tracing pixels back into shapes. It works well for simple, high-contrast icons and logos, and our PNG to SVG converter does it in the browser too, but a clean original SVG is always better than a traced one.

The rule of thumb

If code or a design tool will touch it, use SVG. If someone will drop it into a slide, a document or an email, use PNG at two to four times its display size. Keep the SVG either way, because it is the source you can make every other format from.

Browse 6,000+ free icons in both formats, or go straight to interface icons for app and web work.