Convert JPG to WebP

Why WebP for a website

WebP was designed for the web. For photos it reaches a look similar to JPG in a smaller file, and smaller files make pages that load faster, especially on phones and slow connections. On a page with a dozen photos, the savings add up on every visit. Page speed tools often suggest serving pictures in a modern format like WebP for exactly that reason.

Every current browser shows WebP, and many website builders and content systems accept WebP uploads. Keep your original JPGs, though: they remain the format for email, printing and sending to people who will open the file on any device.

One thing to unlearn: a WebP at quality 80 is not the same as a JPG at quality 80. The two scales are different, so do not copy the number from your old JPG settings. Judge by the size estimate and by looking at the picture, especially at faces, skies and fine patterns.

Width matters more than format

A phone photo is often 4000 pixels wide or more. A blog or shop page rarely shows a picture anywhere near that wide, even on a large screen, so sending all those extra pixels costs far more than the choice between JPG and WebP.

Pick the width first. If the page shows the picture at 800 pixels, a 1280 or 1920-pixel file is plenty, even for sharp, high-density screens. The Size list in Export offers 3840, 2560, 2048, 1920, 1600, 1280, 1080, 800 and 512 pixels wide, as long as the photo is wider, and keeps the proportions. Then set the quality. The estimate under the list updates as you change either.

For exact pixel sizes, the image resizer takes any width and height. For more on the file-size side, see the image compressor.

Converting a JPG is compressing it twice

A JPG has already been through lossy compression once. Turning it into a lossy WebP adds a second round, from a different encoder with its own idea of what to leave out. At sensible settings you will not see it, but there are two ways to make it worse:

• Very low quality. Below about 70, the two kinds of artifacts start to stack up in skies, skin and gradients.
• Going back and forth. Each JPG to WebP to JPG trip loses a little more. Keep the original JPG and make every new copy from it.

Quality 100 is not the answer either. It switches WebP to lossless, which stores the JPG's pixels exactly, compression marks and all, and usually makes a file bigger than the JPG you started with. A photo that must stay exactly as it is can simply stay the JPG it already is.

Publishing photos without the hidden details

A photo straight from a phone usually carries its GPS position, the phone model and the time it was taken. Put that photo on a website and anyone who downloads it can read those details, including where your home or your office is.

A WebP exported by Octoolo carries none of them: the picture is drawn again and written fresh, with no location, camera or date. Leaving them out also trims a little off every file. A phone photo that relied on a rotation note is turned for real first, so it shows upright in every browser.

If you want the same clean-up without changing the format, removing metadata works on JPGs too.