Google today launched a developer preview of their new image format WebP which, they claim, can ‘reduce the byte size of photos on the web, allowing web sites to load faster than before.’
You can see some examples of WebP @ code.google.com/speed/webp/gallery
You can also find a dry but very interesting ‘comparative study’ of WebP, JPEG and JPEG 2000 @ code.google.com/speed/webp/docs/c_study
Install Webp image convertor in Ubuntu
To allow developers – and those with curious eyes – to test out the new format with ease an all-in-one binary file for Linux users has been made available.
- Download the webp convertor to somewhere accessible on your computer
- Grant it executable permissions through the terminal by running:
- chmod a+x webpconv
Usage
Convert images using the following command structure: –
webpconv [-output_dir dir] [-format format] [-quality quality] input_file(s)
Supported formats are BMP, PNG, JPG and WebP
Quality values can be any number between 0 – 100, with 100 being best quality, etc.
Example: To convert a .png image to WebP with a quality of 90 you would enter:
webpconv -quality 90 /home/user/image_name.png
All images outputted in the WebP format cannot currently be viewed in any browser or image viewer until support for viewing WebP images has been added to the application however they can be converted to .png in order to view the results: –
webpconv -format PNG /home/user/image_name.webp