Apple Adds WebP Image Support in Safari 14

During today's WWDC Keynote, Apple showed off the latest version of macOS Safari that will ship with iOS 14 and macOS 11 Big Sur.

In the developer notes, Apple notes that it has added WebP image support for the first time in Safari.

WebP is a newer image format developed by Google and announced in 2010. It provides lossy and lossless compression with smaller file sizes as compared to JPEG and PNG files. Compared with JPEGs, WebP is said to offer 25-35% smaller file sizes for the same quality. The addition of animation also allows it to also serve as a substitute to animated GIFs.

WebP images are supported in Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers, but has been notably absent from both iOS and macOS Safari. The addition to Safari makes the format more likely to receive widespread adoption.

Related Roundups: iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur

Tags: Safari, WebP

Top Rated Comments

Jeaz

11 months ago

But no WebM?

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MattakiStar

11 months ago

I’m sure this format is fine, but I have grown so distrustful of Google, that I really want nothing to do with anything they have touched.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Herbert123

11 months ago

Please let us be able to turn it off or at least download a JPG. Until editing tools widely support WebP this is a headache.

Why? All conversion tools, and most image editors (but for Photoshop curiously enough) already support it: PhotoLine, Krita, Affinity (import), Gimp, Sketch, and so on. And for Photoshop users plugins exist to handle the file format.

Besides, JPG wouldn't work for a large portion of webp images anyway: webp supports full transparency, which jpg does not. And webp images may be saved as lossless, which is not possible in JPG either.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

gmanist1000

11 months ago

Thanks Pied Piper

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Brien

11 months ago

Please let us be able to turn it off or at least download a JPG. Until editing tools widely support WebP this is a headache.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

John.B

11 months ago

But does it play back 4K YouTube? That’s the only reason I haven’t switched from Chrome.

4K YouTube is coming to TV4K ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/22/tvos-14-youtube-videos-in-4k/'), so I imagine the other image formats are coming as well. We’ll know once people have had time to dissect the betas.

The addition of animation also allows it to also serve as a substitute to animated GIFs.

Can we all agree to pronounce this “web pee”? ?

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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