Blogger adopts WebP after 20+ years of JPEG, PNG and SVG
In a personal blog post dated October 8, 2026, the author says they are "now on the WebP bandwagon" after using the same few image formats for more than 20 years. For that whole period they served web images almost entirely as JPEGs, PNGs and, later, SVGs. A footnote adds that GIFs existed too, but were mostly for memes and are now usually turned into much smaller videos.
The author lays out why WebP was a hard sell. Google announced the format in 2010, and it was interesting only academically. Chrome added support in 2011 (a footnote adds "And, of course, Opera"), but other browsers were slow: Edge in 2018, Firefox in 2019 and Safari in 2020. Until there was baseline support, content delivery networks used the format only selectively. It was also a pain to work with: Photoshop got native support only in 2022, and its "Save for Web" and "Export As" features still do not support WebP. Google's eagerness to push the format did not help. Its Lighthouse tool often complained that images were not in WebP, even when the file size savings were relatively minor and format support was immature.
What changed is the tooling. Since moving from Photoshop to Pixelmator Pro, the author has much nicer tools for dealing with WebP. In their two most recent Liquid Glass pieces they used WebP because the files were smaller than JPEGs or PNGs at the same visual quality. The author concedes this will not always hold, but says they have not yet met a case where WebP fails to come out on top, and points to Google's findings on lossy and lossless WebP. They add that WebP having advantages over JPEG and PNG is not surprising; the difference now is that they no longer have to go out of their way to use it.
The post ends by looking ahead. The author wonders if and when Pixelmator Pro will support newer formats such as JPEG XL or AVIF. AVIF looks very promising to them and already has baseline support across browsers. Google announced a few days earlier that it was shipping JPEG XL support (a footnote notes it had dropped it not long before), so JPEG XL might reach baseline soon too. The author is not nearly as annoyed by AVIF or JPEG XL as they were by WebP, and hopes not to wait as long to use them easily.
Key facts
- After 20+ years of serving web images as JPEG, PNG and later SVG, the author now uses WebP.
- The turning point was tooling: moving from Photoshop to Pixelmator Pro made WebP easy to work with, and Photoshop's "Save for Web" and "Export As" still do not support it.
- In the author's two latest Liquid Glass pieces, WebP files were smaller than JPEGs or PNGs at the same visual quality.
- Browser support arrived slowly after Google's 2010 announcement: Chrome in 2011, Edge in 2018, Firefox in 2019, Safari in 2020.
- The author hopes to use AVIF, which already has baseline browser support, and JPEG XL, which Google said days earlier it is shipping.
Why it matters
This is one person's account, but it shows how a format can sit unused for years and then become the default once the tooling stops getting in the way. WebP was announced in 2010, and the author's objections were practical: slow browser adoption, awkward editor support and a Lighthouse tool that nagged about modest savings. Once the editor handled it well, the format's advantages were enough to win them over. The post also notes that Google is shipping JPEG XL support, and that AVIF already has baseline browser support.
Who it affects
People who publish images on the web and have stuck with JPEG, PNG and SVG out of habit or because their editor did not handle newer formats well. Photoshop users are the clearest case: the author says its "Save for Web" and "Export As" features still do not support WebP. Pixelmator Pro users are the other group, since it is the editor the author switched to and the one they are waiting on for AVIF and JPEG XL.
How to use it
The author's own practice is simple: export images as WebP from an editor with good WebP support (they use Pixelmator Pro) and compare the result with JPEG or PNG at the same visual quality. They report that WebP came out smaller in their recent pieces. They also point to Google's findings on the lossy and lossless versions of WebP. The post gives no step-by-step settings.
How solid is it
It is a personal blog post, and the evidence is the author's own experience. No file-size figures or percentages are given for WebP against JPEG or PNG; the claim is only that the files were smaller at the same visual quality. The author themselves says this will not always be the case. The browser support years (Chrome 2011, Edge 2018, Firefox 2019, Safari 2020) and the Photoshop date (2022) are stated in the post.
Risks and caveats
The author has not found a case where WebP does not come out on top, which is not the same as WebP always winning. Their experience is tied to their own images and their own tools. On the newer formats, the post gives no date for Pixelmator Pro supporting AVIF or JPEG XL, and says only that JPEG XL "might" hit baseline in the near future. Google shipping JPEG XL support comes after it had dropped the format not long before, so the outlook for that format is uncertain.
“This won’t always be the case, but I’ve not yet encountered a situation where WebP doesn’t come out on top.”
— the author, personal blog post, October 8, 2026