Manatee

How to convert a WebP to PNG on a Mac and keep the transparency

· 6 min read

To convert a WebP to PNG on a Mac, open it in Preview, choose File, Export, and pick PNG as the format. For a handful of files, right-click them in Finder and use Quick Actions, Convert Image; for a folder, the built-in sips command does them all at once. PNG is the right target when the image has a transparent background, such as a logo, an icon or a product cutout, because PNG keeps transparency and JPEG does not.

Why you ended up with a WebP

Many websites serve images as WebP because the files are compact. When you save an image from a web page, you often get the WebP the site delivered, even if the page looked like it was showing a PNG. macOS has read WebP since Big Sur: Finder shows a thumbnail, Quick Look previews it, and Preview opens it. The trouble starts when you try to use the file elsewhere. Some slide templates, older design apps, print services and upload forms still expect PNG or JPEG.

The choice between the two is simple:

  • PNG for anything with transparency, sharp edges or text: logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams, stickers.
  • JPEG for ordinary photos with no transparent areas, where a smaller file matters more. How to convert WebP to JPEG covers that route.

Option 1: Preview, one file or a batch

  1. Double-click the WebP. It opens in Preview.
  2. Choose File, Export.
  3. Set Format to PNG. Leave the Alpha checkbox ticked if it appears, since that is the transparency.
  4. Choose where to save and click Save.

For several files, select them all in Finder and press Command-O so they open in one Preview window with a thumbnail sidebar. Click in the sidebar, press Command-A to select every thumbnail, then choose File, Export Selected Images. Click Options, set the format to PNG, pick a folder, and click Choose.

Preview writes new PNG files and leaves the WebP originals where they were.

Option 2: the Convert Image quick action

On macOS Monterey and later, Finder can convert images without opening an app.

  1. Select one or more WebP files in Finder.
  2. Right-click and choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image.
  3. Set the format to PNG and pick an image size. Actual Size keeps the original dimensions.
  4. Untick Preserve Metadata if you would rather not carry over whatever details the file holds.
  5. Click Convert to PNG.

A PNG appears next to each original. There are no other settings, which is fine for PNG because it is lossless: there is no quality slider to get wrong.

Option 3: sips in Terminal, for a folder

sips is an image tool that ships with macOS and reads WebP on recent versions. Open Terminal, type cd and a space, drag the folder of WebP files onto the window, and press Return. For one file:

sips -s format png "logo.webp" --out "logo.png"

For every WebP in the folder:

for f in *.webp; do sips -s format png "$f" --out "${f%.webp}.png"; done

sips prints each file name as it goes and nothing else, so glance at the results in Finder afterward.

Option 4: Manatee, when the folder is mixed

If the folder holds WebP files alongside AVIF, HEIC, TIFF or other formats and you want everything as PNG, Manatee handles them in one pass:

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert, or drag the files onto its menu bar icon.
  2. Drop in the images; a whole folder’s worth is fine.
  3. Choose PNG as the target.

Each PNG is written alongside its original, which is never modified, and the conversion runs on your Mac with no upload. Manatee is free for 24 hours with every feature, then $9 once.

Check that the transparency survived

Whichever route you use, check the first result before converting a whole folder. There are two quick ways.

  • Put it on color. Drag the PNG onto a colored slide, a dark document or anything that is not white. A logo that sits cleanly on the color kept its transparency; a logo with a white box around it lost it.
  • Ask Preview. Open the PNG in Preview, choose Tools, Show Inspector, and click the More Info tab. The General section includes a Has Alpha line. Yes means the transparent areas came through.

If the WebP itself had no transparency, there is nothing to keep. Many WebP files on the web are photos with a white background painted in, and a PNG cannot restore a cutout that was never there. In that case the image needs its background removed in an editor, or you need the original file from whoever made it.

What to expect from the PNG

It will be bigger. WebP is a compact format, and PNG stores every pixel without loss. A PNG made from a WebP photo is often several times the size. That is expected, and it is one reason PNG is the wrong choice for photos without transparency.

It will not look better. Many WebP files use lossy compression. Converting to PNG preserves exactly what the WebP holds, soft edges and compression artifacts included, but it cannot put back detail that was discarded when the WebP was made. What it does guarantee is that no further loss is added.

An animated WebP becomes one frame. A standard PNG holds a single still image, so the converters above keep only the first frame. If you need the animation, keep the WebP or ask for the original video.

The dimensions stay the same. Converting does not resize anything unless you ask it to. If the PNG is too large in pixels for where it is going, the Convert Image quick action’s size menu or Preview’s Tools, Adjust Size can scale it down.

For choosing formats when the image is headed back to a website, see how to convert an image to a web-friendly format.

Questions

The file ends in .png but Preview says it is a WebP. Why? Some sites serve WebP data under a .png name. Finder’s Get Info shows the real type next to Kind. Converting it with any of the routes above produces a genuine PNG.

Can I turn the PNG into a JPEG later? Yes, but the transparent areas have to be filled with a solid color, because JPEG cannot hold transparency. How to flatten a transparent PNG to JPEG shows how to choose that color.

Can I convert PNG back to WebP on a Mac? Preview and the quick action do not save WebP, and WebP is not one of Manatee’s targets either. For most uses, PNG or JPEG is the format the destination wanted in the first place.