Why use WEBP
WEBP was designed to send images over the web efficiently. It can compress like a photo format and also supports transparency, so one format can do the jobs of both PNG and JPG. All major browsers support WEBP today.
Lighter images load faster on phones and use less data. Search engines favor fast pages too, which is why many blogs and online stores switch their images to WEBP.
Choosing settings
- Quality 80 to 90: for most photos and illustrations it is hard to tell from the original, while the file shrinks a lot.
- Max width: if your blog's content column is 800 px wide, about 1600 px (for high-density screens) is plenty. Resizing alone saves a lot.
The reduction compared to the original appears next to the result. Small icons or JPGs that are already heavily compressed may not shrink much.
Where WEBP may not work
It is fine on the web, but print shops, older document editors and some product listing forms may not accept WEBP. Use JPG or PNG there.