WebP is image compression technology that creates smaller file sizes without compromising on quality
It can reduce the file size from 20% to 80% (or even more) compared to JPEG, PNG, and GIF
Β
Key Features
π· Developer by Google in 2010
π· Open Source
π· Extension -> .webp
π· MIME type -> image/webp
π· Lossless Compression
π· Supports Animation
π· Supports Alpha Transparency
π· Used by Google, Bind, Facebook
Β
Browser Support
β Chrome >= v9 (2011 year)
β Firefox >= v65 (2019 year)
β Opera >= v11.5 (2011 year)
β Edge >= v19 (2019 year)
β Safari iOS >= v14.4 (2020 year)
β Safari* >= v14 (2020 year) // Safari needs macOS 11 or later
β Internet Explorer* (no native support) // IE needs fallback/polyfill
Β
How To Use
1) Using <picture>
+ <img>
tag
<picture>
<source srcset="img/original.webp" type="image/webp">
<source srcset="img/fallback.jpg" type="image/jpeg">
<img src="img/fallback.jpg" alt="Alt Text!">
</picture>
Note This option is recommended, the browser will select its own supported format
2) Using <img>
tag only
<img src="img/fallback.jpg" alt="Alt Text!">
Note Only choose this option if you don't care about old browsers (like Internet Explorer)
Β
How To Create
Google has created its own package for Linux, Windows and macOS with command-line tools that can be used to transform your existing images (PNG, GIF, JPG) to WEBP format
Link: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/download
This package includes:
- The libwebp library, which can be used to add WebP encoding or decoding to your programs.
- cwebp -- WebP encoder tool
- dwebp -- WebP decoder tool
- vwebp -- WebP file viewer
- webpmux -- WebP muxing tool
- gif2webp -- Tool for converting GIF images to WebP
Usage (Windows Example)
cwebp.exe delivery_parcel.png -q 80 -o delivery_parcel.webp
-
delivery_parcel.png
- source file -
-q 80
- quality param set to 80% -
-o delivery_parcel.webp
- output file
Online Converters
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CMS & JS Frameworks Support
CMS
- Drupal: https://drupal.org/project/webp
- Joomla: https://extensions.joomla.org/instant-search/?jed_live%5Bquery%5D=webp
- Magento: https://marketplace.magento.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=webp
- WordPress: https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/convert+webp/
JS Frameworks (that has optimized image component)
- NextJS
- Gatsby
- Nuxt
Β
CDN Automatic Conversion
Some CDNs support automatic next-gen conversion of your images, like Cloudflare (although it's not a free feature and comes with a PRO plan - $20/mo)
Thanks for reading π
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Top comments (2)
Thanks, it is a brief but well documented article. It is good to know there's this option.
You're welcome! Glad that you liked it :)