The real differences, and how to pick the right one for the job.
PNG and SVG solve different problems. PNG stores an image as a fixed grid of colored pixels — great for photos and anything with fine, continuous detail. SVG stores an image as a set of shapes and paths described mathematically — great for logos, icons, and line art that need to scale cleanly or be edited after the fact.
| SVG | PNG | |
|---|---|---|
| Scales without quality loss | Yes, to any size | No, gets blurry when enlarged |
| Best for | Logos, icons, line art, laser/CNC cutting | Photos, detailed gradients, screenshots |
| File size for simple graphics | Usually much smaller | Larger for the same shape |
| Editable after export | Yes — shapes, colors, and paths can be changed | No — it's a fixed pixel grid |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes |
| Readable by laser engravers / CNC routers | Yes (often via DXF, converted from SVG) | No |
Logos, icons, and simple illustrations that need to appear at multiple sizes — a favicon and a billboard from the same source file. Anything going to a laser cutter, vinyl cutter, or CNC router, which need vector path data rather than pixels. Anything you expect to need to edit later, since individual shapes and colors in an SVG can be changed without redoing the whole image.
Photos, screenshots, and any image with continuous tone or fine detail that doesn't reduce cleanly to flat shapes. PNG is also the more universally compatible format for "just show this image on a webpage or in a document" use cases where scaling and editability don't matter.
Going from SVG to PNG is straightforward — render the shapes at whatever pixel size you need. Going from PNG to SVG is the harder direction, since it means tracing pixel boundaries back into shapes; that's what a tracing tool does.