Web developers and graphic artists who want to try the data-saving graphics format now have two choices of open-source plug-ins for Photoshop. June 25, 2013 9:05 AM PDT Stephen Konig, a Google product manager, discusses the WebP image format at Google I/O 2013. (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET) One of the knocks against WebP, an image format Google and some allies hope will speed up graphics on the Web, is that the world's premier image-editing software can't read or write files. Adobe Systems isn't interested in supporting the format within Photoshop, at least yet, but now there are two active open-source projects under way to build plug-ins that handle the format. The first WebP plug-in, by Toby Thain of Telegraphics, has been around since 2010 and has been updated with new features this month -- ICC color profile support and lossless compression support. Related stories Google cuts network usage by terabytes by switching to WebP Facebook to Firefox: Please add WebP image support Facebook tries Google's WebP image format; users squawk And now a second plug-in is under development by Brendan Bolles. He knew of Thain's work, but said on a mailing list, "I wanted to experiment with the latest lossless and alpha channel features, so I built my own." Alpha channels let graphics include transparent regions, which can be very handy for things like icons and logos, but JPEG doesn't support it and PNG doesn't support "lossy" compression that can significantly reduce file sizes. WebP is designed to outdo JPEG, PNG, and GIF on the Web when it comes to image types ranging from photos to company logos to short animations. Google wants to foster a file format that offers smaller file sizes for faster downloads, and it's won over WebP allies including Facebook. So far, though, support for WebP is limited to the Chrome and Opera browsers, and novices who might want to download and e-mail WebP images are stuck with a file format that operating systems and most graphics viewers can't handle. Most novices won't have Photoshop installed either, of course, but but a plug-in still is useful for graphics experts and Web developers trying to test the file format. For its part, Adobe said there isn't enough interest yet. "Adobe is regularly evaluating which file format our customers need us to support across our entire ecosystem," the company said in a statement. "While WebP is an interesting image format, we have not had significant demand from our customers to support it at this point."
Web developers and graphic artists who want to try the data-saving graphics format now have two choices of open-source plug-ins for Photoshop.
Stephen Konig, a Google product manager, discusses the WebP image format at Google I/O 2013.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
One of the knocks against WebP, an image format Google and some allies hope will speed up graphics on the Web, is that the world's premier image-editing software can't read or write files.
Adobe Systems isn't interested in supporting the format within Photoshop, at least yet, but now there are two active open-source projects under way to build plug-ins that handle the format.
The first WebP plug-in, by Toby Thain of Telegraphics, has been around since 2010 and has been updated with new features this month -- ICC color profile support and lossless compression support.
Related stories
- Google cuts network usage by terabytes by switching to WebP
- Facebook to Firefox: Please add WebP image support
- Facebook tries Google's WebP image format; users squawk
And now a second plug-in is under development by Brendan Bolles. He knew of Thain's work, but said on a mailing list, "I wanted to experiment with the latest lossless and alpha channel features, so I built my own." Alpha channels let graphics include transparent regions, which can be very handy for things like icons and logos, but JPEG doesn't support it and PNG doesn't support "lossy" compression that can significantly reduce file sizes.
WebP is designed to outdo JPEG, PNG, and GIF on the Web when it comes to image types ranging from photos to company logos to short animations. Google wants to foster a file format that offers smaller file sizes for faster downloads, and it's won over WebP allies including Facebook.
So far, though, support for WebP is limited to the Chrome and Opera browsers, and novices who might want to download and e-mail WebP images are stuck with a file format that operating systems and most graphics viewers can't handle.
Most novices won't have Photoshop installed either, of course, but but a plug-in still is useful for graphics experts and Web developers trying to test the file format.
For its part, Adobe said there isn't enough interest yet.
"Adobe is regularly evaluating which file format our customers need us to support across our entire ecosystem," the company said in a statement. "While WebP is an interesting image format, we have not had significant demand from our customers to support it at this point."
