Η extension .webp is used by a file format developed by Google to reduce the size of images.
Images with the .webp extension, although very small in size, offer very good quality as they are designed to make web pages faster. They are usually used by developers.
What are archives WebP?
The WebP format (pronounced Weppy) is the fraternal project of WebM video technology using the VP8 video encoder developed by On2 Technologies. Google acquired On2 Technologies on 19 February 2010 and then released the WebP format in September of the same year.
60% to 65% of the bytes on most web pages are images, so Google thought of creating a free open format code, which saves files with compression and without any particular loss in quality.
Maintaining quality but reducing image size, web pages load faster, use less bandwidth and save battery power - especially on mobile devices when web pages are using WebP images.
The WebP format uses "predictive" compression to encode an image. Checks the values in neighboring pixels (pixels) to predict the values of the following. It then encodes only the difference between them.
This allows multiple pixels to be copied multiple times in a single file. Storing only the data that changes between each block reduces storage compared to PNG and JPEG formats. You can learn more from the official WebP compression techniques page.
WebP images are 26% smaller than PNG files and up to 34% smaller than JPEG files with structural similarity or SSIM.
How do I open WebP images?
Because WebP was developed by Google and is free, it is already integrated into many applications and software that you may already have on your computer. Most web browsers already have the plugin required to manage this format.
WebP images are designed for the web and can not be easily distinguished.
You can save a WebP image to your computer the same way you would any other image on the internet. Right click on the image and click on it again choice "Save picture as."
Select where you want the file to be saved and click on "Save".
If you have any of the Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Opera apps, all you have to do is double click on the image and it opens with your default browser.
You can edit WebP files using shared graphics software, such as GIMP, the Imagemagick or Microsoft Paint, which inherently opens WebP files by default. In Windows, right-click on the image, point to "Open With", and then select the program with which you want to edit it.
IrfanView, Windows Photo Viewer and Photoshop require plug-ins to open WebP images.
