WebP

= WebP =

toc WebP is an image format developed by Google. It was first announced on Google’s Chromium blog on September 30, 2010. WebP is an open source technology that Google encourages all developers to work with.

Features
Google reports the average file size reduction from using WebP is 39%. WebP is available with both lossy and lossless compression, making it competitive with the JPEG and PNG image formats. Compared to JPEG and PNG, the average size reductions from lossy and lossless WebP compression are 25-34% and 28%, respectively. On Thursday, November 17, 2011, Google announced the addition of the lossless format and transparency capabilities, also known as alpha channel. WebP can also support ICC color profiles, and it is extensible, allowing for the addition of metadata to an image. WebP supports animated images like GIFs. In the future, Google hopes to add support for 3-D files and thumbnail generation, among other things.

How it works
WebP is based on the open source VP8 codec originally developed by Google in early 2010. This video codec uses video intra frame coding, which Google translated to use for still image coding. Google attributes WebP’s compression abilities to both the VP8 codec’s “predictive coding” and WebP’s RIFF-based container. By grouping data into chunks, RIFF achieves a lossless format similar to TIFF files. RIFF has a dedicated data chunk named “INFO” that allows for color profile information and metadata to be stored. Despite its ability to compete against GIF, PNG, and JPEG files, WebP is not yet a common file format. It is not supported by most browsers, nor is it speed-optimized. However, workarounds exist for WebP images to be displayed in non-supported browsers such as Firefox, and Google has released an image conversion tool to aid the adoption of the new format.

Compare JPEG and WebP image quality in this gallery: [|http://code.google.com/speed/webp/gallery1.html#samples]

Compare PNG, WebP lossy and WebP lossless image quality in this gallery: []

** References **
//Lossless and transparency encoding in WebP //. (2011, November 18). Retrieved from []

Miyagi, M. (2011, November 19). //Google improves online images //. Retrieved from http://www.techieinsider.com/news/12465

Vikas, A. (2011, October 3). WebP-Mux (RIFF based container) framework [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from []

//WebP, a new image format for the web //. (2011, September 30). Retrieved from http://blog.chromium.org/2010/09/webp-new-image-format-for-web.html