Google reinvents picture compression format
Google introduce a new image compression format called WebP (pronounced as “weppy”).
The dominant picture formats used on the net today are GIF, JPEG and PNG. This more than a decade developed picture compression formats are imperfect for today heavy graphic web use and they are major cause of web latency.
Google hopes to solve this with their new image format – WebP. WebP is a lossy compression method where users can adjust the degree of compression to choose, so they can get optimum ratio of image quality and file size. WebP uses predictive coding to encode the image, the same coding algorithm used in VP8 (Google’s newly developed video codec). Google confirms that WebP images are averagely 40% smaller than other picture formats at the similar level of quality.
For more info click here. Comparing gallery of the WebP format can be seen here.
Tags | google, images, Internet, Technology News, Web Sites
I suppose for those who are super photographers, this will be nice. However, with ever increasing internet speeds, will the new file type even be worth it to make the file size smaller? I think I’ll take a few puffs on my t-rex electronic cigarette and ponder this thought!