Web Tool Kit

WebP Image Format Summary

🖼️ What Is WebP?

  • Developed by Google in 2010
  • Supports lossy, lossless, transparency, and animation
  • Aims to replace JPEG, PNG, and GIF with smaller sizes

⚙️ Technical Highlights

  • Based on VP8 codec, uses RIFF format
  • Supports YCbCr 4:2:0, block prediction, entropy encoding
  • Max dimensions: 16,383 x 16,383 pixels
  • Lossless compression uses caching and dictionary coding

📉 Compression Efficiency

  • Lossless WebP ~26% smaller than PNG
  • Lossy WebP ~25-34% smaller than JPEG
  • Animated WebP can reduce GIF sizes by up to 64%

🌐 Browser & Software Support

  • Supported in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari
  • Works with GIMP, Photoshop (with plugin), ImageMagick
  • Used in WordPress, Joomla, Cloudflare, BunnyCDN

✅ Pros

  • Smaller file sizes mean faster load times
  • Supports transparency and animation
  • Great for SEO and Core Web Vitals

❌ Cons

  • Not supported in all older browsers, see: Can I Use WebP
  • Quality loss if converted from compressed sources