What is WebP Technology? How can it be converted?

Created on 16 December, 2025 • İnternet • 3 views • 2 minutes read

WebP Technology and File Compression System

What is WebP and How Does It Work?

Performance and optimization in the frontend are becoming increasingly important. Fast image loading significantly impacts page load time, traffic statistics, and user experience. This is where the WebP format comes to the forefront. So, what is WebP, how does it work, and what are its advantages and disadvantages compared to JPG?

WebP is a project developed by Google and shared as open source. It uses both lossy and lossless compression techniques for various photos, translucent images, and graphic images found on the internet. The lossy compression ratio is adjustable. This allows users to make a balanced choice between file size and image quality. WebP generally offers an average of 30% more compression than JPEG and JPEG 2000 without any loss in image quality. The WebP format aims to create smaller, higher-quality images that can contribute to faster internet speeds.

WebP Image Compression System

There are three different situations:

If the source image is in lossless ARGB format, converting it to YUV420 with spatial downsampling produces new colors that are more difficult to compress than the original colors. This often happens when the source file is in a low-color PNG format: Converting to a lossy WebP format (or a similar lossy JPEG format) can lead to an increase in file size.

If the source file is in a lossy format, using lossless WebP compression to preserve its lossy nature usually results in a larger file. This is not limited to WebP and can also be seen, for example, when converting a JPEG source to lossless WebP or PNG formats.

If the source is in a lossy format and you are trying to compress it as lossy WebP with a higher quality setting, for example, converting a JPEG file saved at quality level 80 to a WebP file at quality level 95, usually creates a larger file even though both formats are lossy. It is often not possible to evaluate the quality of the source. Therefore, if the file size is constantly increasing, it is recommended to reduce the target WebP quality. Alternatively, you can consider not using the quality setting and instead aiming for a specific file size with the cwebp tool using the -size option or a similar API. For example, aiming for 80 percent of the original file size might be a more robust method. Keep in mind that you shouldn't encounter such file size surprises when trying to convert JPEG sources to lossy WebP or PNG sources to lossless WebP.

What is the maximum size of WebP images? WebP is bitstream compatible with VP8 and uses 14 bits for width and height. The maximum pixel dimensions of WebP images are 16383 x 16383.

How can I convert my JPG image files to WebP?

You can use the WebP command-line utility to convert your personal image files to WebP format.

If you have a large number of images to convert, you can use your platform's shell to simplify the process. For example, to convert all JPEG files in a folder, try the following:

Windows: > for /R . %I in (*.jpg) do ( cwebp.exe %I -o %~fnI.webp )

Linux / macOS: $ for F in *.jpg; do cwebp $F -o `basename ${F%.jpg}`.webp; done

Online WebP Converter: You can convert your images to webp format online from our website. https://matik.com.tr/en/jpg-to-webp