Flyers · Glossary
What is a WebP image?
WebP is an image format developed by Google for the web that can compress either lossily, like JPG, or losslessly, like PNG, and supports transparency and animation in one format. Its files are usually noticeably smaller than equivalent JPG or PNG images, which is why websites serve it to make pages load faster.
Most people meet WebP by accident, when an image saved from a website will not open in the program they wanted or a printer refuses the upload. It is an excellent format for screens and a poor fit for print, and knowing that difference saves a round of conversions.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
5 min read · Published
| WebP | JPG and PNG | AVIF | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy or lossless in one format | JPG lossy, PNG lossless | Lossy or lossless |
| Size | Lossless 26% smaller than PNG; lossy 25 to 34% smaller than JPG (Google) | The baseline | Smaller again than WebP in MDN's summary |
| Transparency | Yes | PNG only | Yes |
| Animation | Yes | Neither (GIF instead) | Yes |
| Browser support | About 97% of users (caniuse) | Universal | Modern browsers, fallback advised |
| Print shops and editors | Often not accepted | Accepted almost everywhere | Rarely accepted |
| Maximum size | 16383 x 16383 pixels | Far larger | Large |
One format covering two older ones
Before WebP, a website needed JPG for photographs, PNG for graphics with transparency and GIF for animation. WebP handles all three jobs. RFC 9649, the IETF document published in November 2024 that registers the image/webp media type, describes it as a RIFF based format that supports lossless and lossy compression as well as alpha transparency and animation. Its lossy mode is based on the intra frame coding of the VP8 video codec, and its lossless mode uses separate techniques built for exact reproduction. The file can also carry an embedded ICC colour profile and EXIF or XMP metadata. The .webp extension is the same whichever mode is inside, so the name alone does not tell you whether a file is lossy or lossless.
How much smaller, and why it matters
Google's figures are the usual reference. WebP lossless images are 26 percent smaller than PNGs, and lossy WebP images are 25 to 34 percent smaller than comparable JPEGs at an equivalent SSIM quality index. Lossless transparency costs just 22 percent additional bytes, and lossy images with transparency are typically about three times smaller than the PNG equivalent. On a page with dozens of images those savings add up to faster loading on mobile connections, lower data costs and better page speed scores. Support is no longer a barrier: caniuse reports WebP working for about 97 percent of users worldwide, with full support since Chrome 32, Edge 18, Firefox 65 and Safari 16.
Where WebP does not fit
WebP was designed for screens, and the design choices show outside them. Google's FAQ states that lossy WebP works exclusively with 8 bit Y'CbCr 4:2:0 colour, which stores colour at lower resolution than brightness; that is invisible in most photographs but can soften fine coloured text and thin red or blue lines. There is no CMYK mode, and the maximum dimension is 16383 by 16383 pixels. Many print shops, older desktop programs and some online forms still do not accept WebP uploads. For print, supply PDF, PNG or a high quality JPG. For archiving photographs, keep the original camera file or a lossless master, and treat WebP as a delivery format generated from it rather than the only copy.
Common mistakes
The first is saving an image from a website, getting a WebP file, and sending it straight to a printer who cannot open it. Convert it first, and remember that converting a lossy WebP to PNG does not restore detail. The second is recompressing an already compressed JPG as lossy WebP and again later, stacking artefacts each time; always encode from the best original. The third is assuming every WebP is small, when a lossless WebP of a photograph can still be large. The fourth is using WebP for a logo that needs to stay sharp at many sizes, a job for a vector format. The last is serving WebP without checking an old system that still needs a fallback.
WebP on this site and in the flyer builder
The preview images on this site are served as WebP for exactly the reasons above, so a picture saved from one of these pages will usually arrive as a .webp file. WebP is not an export option in the flyer builder: flyers export as PDF, PNG or JPG, all RGB, with PNG and JPG at twice the canvas size, such as 2160 by 2160 for an Instagram post. WebP is accepted as an input, though. Photo boxes take JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF uploads up to 10 megabytes once the flyer has been saved, and an uploaded image is cropped to fill its box. So a WebP photograph from a supplier's website can go straight onto a flyer, and the export that goes to print or social media comes out as a format everyone accepts.
Questions people ask
How do I open a WebP file?
Every current major web browser opens WebP, so dragging the file into Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari is the quickest way to view it. Recent versions of the built in photo viewers on Windows and macOS also open it, as do most current image editors. Older software may need an update or a plugin.
How do I convert WebP to JPG or PNG?
Open the file in an image editor or the built in Preview app on a Mac and export or save as JPG or PNG. Many online converters do the same, though uploading images to unknown sites is best avoided for anything private. Choose PNG if the image has transparency, since JPG will fill transparent areas with a solid colour.
Is WebP better quality than JPG?
At the same file size, WebP usually looks slightly better, and at the same visual quality it is smaller, which is what Google's figures measure. At very high quality settings the difference narrows. Quality depends far more on the encoder settings and the source image than on the format name, so compare results at full size.
Should my website use WebP or AVIF?
AVIF can compress further than WebP, but encoding is slower and support, while now broad, arrived later. A common approach is serving AVIF with a WebP or JPG fallback through the picture element, letting each browser pick the best format it understands. For a small site, WebP alone is a simple and widely supported choice.
Can WebP images be animated?
Yes. Animated WebP supports both lossy and lossless frames with transparency, and Google reports smaller files than GIF and APNG. The trade off is decoding effort: Google's FAQ notes that lossy animated WebP takes about 2.2 times as long to decode as GIF, which matters little for short loops.
Does WebP keep photo metadata?
The format can store EXIF and XMP metadata and an ICC colour profile, but many converters and upload pipelines strip them to save space or protect privacy. If location data, copyright notices or colour profiles matter, check the settings of the tool doing the conversion before relying on WebP to carry them.
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Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .