What are Next-Gen Image Formats WebP and AVIF (and Why Do I Care)?

Entrepreneurs, business owners, and web developers know how important it is to have optimized images on your website. Not only do they make your site look more appealing, but they also help to reduce loading times and increase performance. Faster loading times will improve your SEO - Google loves speedy webpages.

Did you know that there are new image formats that can take your website's performance to the next level? Before we take a look at two of the most popular next-gen image formats - WebP and AVIF - let’s talk about what we’re all (or most of us) are using today.

The GIF

(I pronounce it with a hard G as did the inventor but most people use a soft G)

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is one of the oldest image file formats in existence. It was invented in 1987 by Stephen Earl Wilhite, a computer scientist working for CompuServe. The format quickly became popular thanks to its ability to compress large images into small files that could be easily shared online. But GIFs were limited in terms of color depth and resolution, which is why they weren't always suitable for larger images or photographs. 

The JPEG & PNG

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) solved many of the limitations of the GIF format by allowing more colors and higher resolutions. The downside was that JPEG files were much larger than their GIF counterparts, which made them slower to load. This is where the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format came in handy; it was able to produce images at high resolutions while still keeping file sizes small enough for efficient web loading speeds.  

These days we use JPEG for photos, PNGs for graphics, and GIF is almost always used for animated images.

Enter WebP

WebP (pronounced "weppy") is an open-source image format developed by Google in 2010. It was designed to be faster than other common image formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF while still delivering high quality images. WebP uses both lossy and lossless compression techniques to reduce file size without sacrificing quality. This means that your images will be smaller in size yet higher in quality. It also supports transparency as well as animation, making it perfect for use with logos, icons, banners, or other web graphics where a transparent background would come in handy. 

And AVIF

AVIF stands for “AV1 Image File Format” and is the latest addition to the next-gen image formats family. It was developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) in 2019 as an improvement over existing image formats such as JPEG, HEIC (High Efficiency Image Coding), and WebP. Unlike these other formats which rely on either lossy or lossless compression techniques to reduce file sizes while maintaining quality, AVIF uses both methods simultaneously - resulting in even smaller files sizes with no noticeable decrease in quality! The only downside of this format right now is that it isn't supported by all browsers yet (unlike WebP which has wide support). However, with its growing popularity it won't be long before it becomes the go-to format for web developers everywhere.  

Next-gen image formats like WebP and AVIF offer significant improvements over traditional image formats like JPEGs or PNGs when it comes to file size and performance on websites. They are also supported by all major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (Chromium) and Opera so there's no need to worry about compatibility issues. So if you're looking for ways to speed up your website or make your content look better without sacrificing quality then these next-gen image formats are definitely worth considering!

Replacing your images with high-performance image formats is something Goodwin Creative could do for you either through our Maintenance Club or our Website Audit packages. Give us a call today!