WebP new image format is here to speed up the web
Ivan | Thu, 2010-09-30 22:52Google is introducing a new compressed image format called WebP (pronounced "weppy"). It's like JPG, PNG and GIF but better. Apparently the resulting images with WebP are 40% smaller than a jpg file at the same quality.
But why bother with another file type. There are two very good reasons for that. Bandwidth costs and downloading speeds. Web pages on the web today are full of images and they make up at least 50% or more of the total bandwidth required for an average page. WebP can potentially make the web 25% faster in average for users and could cut bandwidth costs potentially by a quarter. This ratio can be significantly higher for sites with lot of large images.
For this new standard to take hold a lot has to happen. First of all, most browsers have to support WebP. Chrome will have WebP support within weeks and I speculate Safari and Firefox will follow shortly. It will take years for IE to follow, but eventually it will support it too. Second, we need Photoshop and other image editors to export WebP. Third, we need a web server solution to convert existing images on websites to WebP format dynamically depending whether the user is using a browser that supports WebP.
Do you think WebP will be a good change for the web or just one more standard to worry about?
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Most designers I suspect would know where, why and to what advantage to each graphic format out there. Each has their strengths and weaknesses.
If WebP could give us 24-bit PNG quality, with transparency, at less than JPG file sizes, then let's just use the one graphic standard "WebP". I don't care who owns the formula, or what they call it... if technology is improving and we are going to make the leap to embrace the new format... the let's wait for a leap that takes us to that heavenly place of "one format does all".
Kevan
www.gabriolagraphics.com
I don't really see this taking off, maybe I'm wrong.
For one thing I believe that vast majority of people have connections that are more than adequate for modern websites. Yes I realize there are areas where people don't get the good connections we do, but they'll get there quickly ... the mobile revolution will only speed that up. If companies are rolling out HD streaming rentals, I think our websites are safe.
Secondly from a technical point of view, I see a bit of a shift away from being so graphic dependent when constructing websites. A lot of the stuff that you were doing with images you can now do directly in CSS and HTML. So in a way you are burning away some of the fat.
Am I the only one a little worried about Google dipping it's hand into every pond imaginable?
This is not necessary and we have NO PLANS to ever support a stupid Gaggle-format!
http://stevefakeballmer.wordpress.com/
I am not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be me!
yeah, googles omnipresence is a bit disturbing. they need to stay the hell out of user experience stuff. i have all their services (mail, voice, chrome, yadda, yadda...) and never use any of them because the user interface is soooo horribly designed.
its bad when your stuff makes microsofts UI look good!
So in other words, they've re-invented JPEG2000. We all know how that went.
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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
Ivan,
You really need to be very careful to write something about that: "WebP new image format is here to speed up the web".
This new format is NO better then the current formats we have.
Just google a little and you will see.
So the 40% saving is not true?
From what I've read, it is better as far as compression goes. The problem is, who the heck is going to use the format? People have (in some cases) decades worth of habit to break. With broadband so relatively accessible to the market, saving 40% of an 8 to 15k file is just not worth the hassle of worrying if the reader's web browser will render it correctly.
Until IE accepts the format, it stands zero chance of catching on anyway... and we all know how cooperative MS can be regarding web standards.
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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
You can now actually mess with WebP files, since Pixelmator has added support for this. Just download a trial copy and check out the compression and image quality for yourself.
Sounds like a bloody good idea, hopefully one day it'll be implemented, seamlessly on all platforms and formats..... Rrrrright..
Graphic Design Manchester
Photoshop can open and save WebP using my free (GPL) WebP File Format plugin.
The plugin aims to do high quality encoding and decoding. The OS X versions (CS2 through CS5) are the most complete. The Windows version will be updated with encode settings UI, and 64 bit version, in future.