Image to WebP
What Image to WebP actually does
WebP exists for one reason, which is that pages load faster when the pictures on them are smaller, and that makes this the only conversion here where the interesting question is not which format but how much quality is worth giving up. The answer is not the same for a photograph as it is for a screenshot of an interface: photographs tolerate aggressive settings almost invisibly, while flat colour and text start to smear well before the numbers suggest they should. So the result of every file is reported against what it started at, and the honest way to use this page is to convert once, read the percentages, and go back if a picture gave up more than it should have. Transparency survives, which means a PNG cutout can become a WebP without needing a fallback, and both PNG and JPG sources are accepted so a page's whole image folder can go through in one pass.
How to use it
- Add the pictures from the site, in any mixture of PNG and JPG.
- Set the quality and convert. Each row reports the new size beside the old one as a percentage change.
- If something gave up too much, change the quality and convert again; the queue keeps the files.
Useful for
- Cut the weight of the images on a page without changing their dimensions.
- Replace a heavy PNG on a site while keeping its transparent background.
- Find out what a picture would actually save as WebP before committing a site to it.
Limits worth knowing
- Older software and some email clients still cannot display WebP, so a fallback matters for anything outside a browser.
- Flat colour and text degrade at settings that photographs shrug off. Check a screenshot at full size before shipping it.
- Animation is not produced. An animated source converts to a single frame.
- Colour profiles are not carried through.
Questions people ask
How much smaller should I expect the files to be?
It depends entirely on the picture, which is why the change is reported per file rather than promised in advance. Photographs commonly fall a long way; a small flat graphic sometimes grows.
Does a transparent PNG stay transparent?
Yes. WebP stores an alpha channel, so no fill colour is needed and none is offered.
Is WebP safe to use on a live site?
Every current browser displays it. The risk is outside the browser, in older desktop software and some mail clients, so keep an original where files get downloaded.