As you know, WebP is an image format that employs both lossy and lossless compression. WebP is an open format currently developed by Google:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebP

And finally implemented support for animation (see article in LibreGraphicsWorld):
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entr ... on-support

You can download WebP binaries from:
https://code.google.com/p/webp/downloads/list

You know, we always try to reduce the file size with the least possible loss of quality. And reducing the file size is something to be thankful for when it comes to animations for the web (comparing with APNG, GIF, that do not support lossy compression).

For comparison, download WebP tools binaries from the above link and unzip to a folder. In the same folder unzip this file with the samples:
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/WJ3cbUOnGW/w ... s.zip.html

Now in GNU/Linux (I think you have to do something similar in Windows) open the terminal in the same folder and run the following commands to open the WebP viewer:



Drag the windows on the link below and compare:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=195

The file sizes are:
**dino (2 frames)
apng - 185.9 KiB
webp - 95,8 KiB
**gemstone (15 frames):
apng - 1019,5 KiB
webp - 106,2 KiB

I really do not know why there is so much file size difference in the second example. I've used in all images "50" as the value of compression for WebP.

I did look into webp format a little bit last year.
Now that it supports animation do you think someone will build a plugin for gimp to export in that format?
It will be interesting to see how much further development from Google goes with this new format.
Of course it really isn't all that new.

Hi Rod.

I have no idea. But I hope someone build it.
I think that web browsers and forums do not support WebP animations too. And still no graphical programs to handle WebP. I hope that from now start to have better support for WebP. I guess that depends on Google publishes clear specifications and everything needed to make work easier for developers.

You need to run APNG through this:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/apng/f ... Optimizer/

And WebP animations are so new, even their own Chromium doesn't support them yet.
So it would be quite a while until it's in stable Chrome.

Hello. I think the APNG for example I have used already are optimized. At least if I apply "apngopt" they result in a slightly larger size.
You remember that APNG (PNG) is a format that does not support lossy compression.

* SWF is not an open format, and its tools are not OpenSource.
* It belongs to Adobe

Anyway, SWF apparently seems to work with vector graphics.