What is WebP?
WebP is an image format Google introduced in 2010 to make the web faster. It does what JPEG does (lossy photos) and what PNG does (lossless graphics with transparency) and can even animate like GIF, usually in noticeably fewer bytes. Google's own study found lossy WebP files 25–34% smaller than JPEGs of the same quality.
Every current browser displays WebP: Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. That makes it a safe default for website images today.
When to use WebP
Use WebP for images on websites, in web apps and in email newsletters that support it. Smaller images load faster, which visitors notice and search engines measure. For maximum compression, AVIF goes further still, but it's slower to encode. WebP is the dependable middle ground.
Keep your originals for editing and printing. WebP is a delivery format. Many photo editors and print services still expect JPEG, PNG or TIFF.
How Squeezels converts
Squeezels decodes each image with macOS, so anything your Mac can open can be converted, including RAW files from most cameras and layered PSDs (flattened). It then encodes with libwebp at the quality you choose, using every core: one image per CPU core. Rotation is applied, the colour profile is kept, and EXIF and GPS are left out by default.
