WebP is a browser image format created by Google in September 2010 and is mainly used on Google Chrome. It’s considered the sister project to the WebM video container format. The maximum pixels of WebP images are 16,383 x 16,383.
The WebP file format was designed to replace the JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats. At an analogous structural similarity (SSIM) quality index, it offers both lossy and lossless compression. WebP lossless images are 26% smaller than PNG files and 34% smaller than lossy JPEG files.
WebP format aims to reduce the size of image files while maintaining their quality. Usually, over 60% of bytes are images on websites, so using the WebP format will reduce loading time and improve the performance of all web pages, as well as cause less pressure on bandwidth.
History of WebP Format
Google completed the acquisition of On2 Technologies in February 2010. In the same year, it released WebP as an open-source file format based on the technology of On2.
On November 8, 2011, Google allowed WebP support for lossless compression and transparency (alpha channel). It was supported by default in libwebp 0.2.0 on August 8, 2012.
How to Open WebP Files
WebP files are supported by almost all major browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. As a result, if you're using a browser, you should have no trouble opening a WebP.
On a Windows operating system, Microsoft Paint can help you open and even edit WebP files, but the edited files cannot be saved in WebP file format again. If you're using one of the browsers listed above, you can also open them by double-clicking.
For macOS users, Apple’s Preview also supports WebP images.
If you want to open WebP images on a mobile device, downloading Google Photos may be a good choice.
How to Convert WebP Images
By using Microsoft Paint, you can convert WebP to PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and HEIC easily. Only with three steps can you achieve this conversion.
Step 1. Open a WebP image with Microsoft Paint;
Step 2. Click File > Save as;
Step 3. Select an image format, then click Save.
However, if you want to convert WebP to those complicated formats, such as TIFF, PCB, PBD, etc., you need to download a dedicated tool or utilize online converters.
