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.webp
Web Picture Format
WebP is a modern image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. Using WebP, webmasters and developers can create smaller, richer images that make the web faster.
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History & Origin
Developed by Google acquired On2 Technologies and released in 2010. It is based on the VP8 video codec and aims to replace JPEG, PNG, and GIF as a universal web image format.
Internal Structure
WebP follows the RIFF container format. It supports both lossy compression (using predictive coding) and lossless compression. It also supports alpha channel transparency and animation.
Advantages
- Efficiency: Files are 25-34% smaller than JPEG and PNG.
- Versatility: Supports lossy, lossless, transparency, and animation in one format.
- Quality: Better visual quality per byte than JPEG.
Disadvantages
- Legacy support: Older browsers (IE, old Safari) do not support it natively.
- Encoding speed: Encoding can be slower than JPEG.
Common Use Cases
Website images (for faster load times)
App assets
Digital stickers
Animated thumbnails
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