Main Site Add support for the WebP image format

[aaronfranke]

Can you add WebP to the list of supported image formats? The list is currently "jpg, jpeg, png, gif", can you add "webp" to that list?

The WebP format has much better compression compared to PNG, JPEG, or GIF. It supports lossless compression, lossy compression, and animations, so it can function as a full replacement for PNG, JPEG, and GIF. Additionally, the WebP format is supported by all major web browsers as of the last few years (the format itself was released in 2010 but these things take a long time to be adopted). If WebP was supported, I could upload WebP images and significantly reduce the download size (depending on the image, it can shrink by 10% to 50%)

 

[JendaLinda]

I had this idea as well, althiugh lossy WebP is not good for art. The lossy compression is too harsh on images. On the other hand, lossless WebP would be a great alternative to PNG.

 

[aaronfranke]

@JendaLinda The lossy compression can be adjusted to different quality levels. A high quality setting makes the image almost indistinguishable from lossless images. WebP's lossy compression has better quality than JPEG for the same file size, so it's at least as good as JPEG.

 

[JendaLinda]

Lossy WebP is based on a video codec, those are optimized for low fidelity, low bitrate. In higher quality, the efficiency gain is smaller. Additionally, lossy WebP always uses 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.

WebP would be great for animation, though.

 

[JendaLinda]

Lossy VP8 and lossless VP8L used in WebP are in fact completely different algorithms. They work in completely different way, kinda like JPEG versus PNG.

In any case, allowing WebP uploads would be useful. Users just have to learn how to use it correctly. As I said, lossless VP8L is a good alternative to PNG, especially for 24 bpp and 32 bpp images.