Web Development Fundamentals: WebP Web Photos
I'll get right to the point: it is almost always appropriate to use the WebP format for storing photographic and other detailed images on the web.
This fact is generally common sense for the seasoned web developer. The WebP format was intentionally designed for the purpose of efficiently storing photographic image data, and it is objectively the best modern choice for this purpose, considering our choice between all image formats.
New web developers or hobbyists who aren't considering network efficiency may overlook the need to convert their photographs or other high-resolution images into the WebP format. This will result in websites that load slowly and that can quickly exceed reasonable per-visit data transfer norms by many orders of magnitude. This will cause impatient users to bounce while the site consumes resources (and may build up to an unmaintainable expense) at a truly unruly rate. That's right: the result of neglecting network efficiency by using the wrong image format is more than a small issue!
So now that we all know what we should be doing, how do we do it easily?
When you save or export an image in many programs, there is the option to do so in WebP. This isn't always the right choice though; WebP is probably not the format you want to keep the "original" photo or artwork in. Opening each original only to export them in WebP can be very tedious.
Another option is to use a photo converter program. This generally provides a low-friction way to convert an image from one format into WebP before you upload to serve it along with your website's image assets. This can also be tedious if you have many images to convert.
In comes a final solution: the batch image converter. A tool like this can convert a selection of images all at once. The downside is that these tools can be expensive or illusive.
But you, dear web librarian, are in luck! I've made a free batch image converter just for you. Of course there is no ads and all the processing happens locally, privately. I'm offering this tool as an example of "software as a public service".
With the other public resources, the batch WebP converter tool is available at our King Book web library. Please check it out next time you need to convert a batch of images.
I'd love to hear if anyone needs help with it or wants further discussion about our communal WebP converter tool. Or if you have an idea for future usability upgrades! Comment here if you need a hand with it, have something to say, or have an idea for something that would make it more useful to you.
<3 Grant