WebP Image Format Delivery with Pixboost

Each day we are thinking of how to deliver images through Pixboost even faster. So, we are happy to announce that Pixboost is supporting WebP format now.

What is WebP and why use it

WebP is a image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. By using WebP it is possible to create smaller, richer images that make websites faster.

WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs. WebP lossy images are 25–34% smaller than comparable JPEG images at equivalent SSIM quality index.

Lossy WebP compression uses predictive coding to encode an image, which uses the values in neighboring blocks of pixels to predict the values in a block, and then encodes only the difference.

Lossless WebP compression uses already seen image fragments in order to exactly reconstruct new pixels. It can also use a local palette if no interesting match is found.

Pixboost uses Lossy WebP compression because we optimize every image that goes through our service. It is also possible to turn off the feature.

The algorithm

Pixboost transforms and delivers PNG and JPEG images through CDN to the end user. This allowed provide highly optimized images for website needs. SAAS is an out of the box version and you can start using it straight away.

So, lets see how the new algorithm works and how effective it is.

1. There is no need to setup this feature or do any coding to start using it. We decided to make it a default option, therefore it is already turned on automatically. Although, it is possible to turn off the feature. Please refer to the documentation.
2. Browsers are sending special header called “Accept” that tells server which formats it supports.
3. If browser supports WebP format then the header will have “image/webp” value.
4. When Pixboost sees this value will transform image to a new format.

How effective is the transformation

Lets compare some PNG and JPEG images transformed into WebP format by Pixboost.

As you can see, original image can be optimized straight away by 30% or more using Pixboost Service.

Web browser support

Currently Chrome and Opers browsers are supporting WebP format.

WebP lossy support:

• Google Chrome (desktop) 17+
• Google Chrome for Android version 25+
• Opera 11.10+
• Native web browser, Android 4.0+ (ICS)

WebP lossy, lossless & alpha support:

• Google Chrome (desktop) 23+
• Google Chrome for Android version 25+
• Opera 12.10+
• Native web browser, Android 4.2+ (JB-MR1)
• Pale Moon 26+

WebP Animation support:

• Google Chrome (desktop and Android) 32+
• Opera 19+