Update: Images Now Served in WebP Format

by Simon 5 Replies latest forum announcements

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  Simon

  I've pushed an update to the image handling so they are now served using the WebP format if the requesting browser supports it. Currently that is Chrome, Opera and Android Mobile but Safari is adding support in the next version and there's hope that Firefox and Edge will get on board soon.

  Read more about WebP

  WebP is a newer image format that can replace Jpeg, Gif and Png but with much better compression rates for the same quality. Savings of 30-50% or more are typical (even more for many avatars). So images should download faster and consume less bandwidth. Coupled with the auto scaling on the client (which requests the appropriate size to fit the device being used) it should be especially useful for mobile users.

  I don't have the animated Gif to animated WebP completed yet so they may not show up - the plan is to eventually serve a static image with a 'play' button so the user can decide whether to view what could be a large file (some animated Gif's are often 2Mb or more which you probably don't want on your cellphone).

  More major speedups and savings for general topic-viewing on mobile is still to come ...
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  cofty

  Thanks for the update!
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  compound complex

  Thanks, Simon, for what you are doing. It's much appreciated.

  Regarding an earlier post about abrupt changes in JWD on my Apple (at the time of your converting to https), my DELL (Chrome) shows everything on JWD: images, avatars/names, reply box, etc. I learned how to resize photos with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Apart from each page's loading slowly (pc issue), DELL and Chrome like JWD!

  On the other hand, more and more sites are becoming unavailable to me with Safari (Apple) because I cannot upgrade although the prompt is there. JWD, as ever, is not interactive, there are no images, etc. Firefox, the same.

  There's nothing on your end to help because my Mac stubbornly refuses to cooperate. The only good part is that the pages load fast and I can zip through the reading part.

  Guess I have the best of both worlds considering I'm using 2 very old hand-me-down laptops.

  THANKS AGAIN!
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  Anders Andersen

  Thanks Simon!

  I'm almost always in my mobile here :-)
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  freddo

  Absolutely superb work Simon!

  Personally I haven't a clue what you just posted but I'm sure the less technically challenged than me will make good use of it.
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  OUTLAW

  I don't have the animated Gif to animated WebP completed yet so they may not show up - the plan is to eventually serve a static image with a 'play' button so the user can decide whether to view what could be a large file (some animated Gif's are often 2Mb or more which you probably don't want on your cellphone).