Announcing the new WebPStack
WebP is an open source image format. It’s well suited towards images you present online in websites, as an alternative to JPG, PNG and GIF. When using WebP, images are encoded into a significantly smaller file size; while still retaining stunning image quality and fast rendering. Plus WebP can handle alpha-transparency (like PNG) and animation (like GIF). So WebP has a lot to offer and is definitely something to get excited about. Now is the perfect time to start embracing WebP and exploiting its benefits.
The disadvantages of WebP? Some notable web browsers (like Apple Safari, as of June 2019) currently languish far behind in their support for WebP. The new WebPStack solves this problem; through letting you serve WebP images to the better web browsers that support the format, while offering a reliable fallback for older browsers that still prefer JPG, PNG or GIF.
The WebPStack is easy to use. Add the stack to a webpage and link-to an image in WebP format. Free converters like WebPonize work great for this task. Then provide the same image in JPG, PNG or GIF for older web browsers. WebPStack will attempt to display the WebP image first, but will use the fallback image if the web browser lacks WebP support.
Retina display optimisation? WebPStack also has you covered! Provide WebP and fallback images double (x2) the width and height of the standard images. Link to these in the stack settings. Now you can optimise your images for retina displays and present them in an even higher resolution of unparalleled sharpness and colour quality. Plus images are scaled responsively.
WebPStack also carries optional settings to apply title tooltips on your images or links. As you would expect, the stack uses valid HTML5 markup and provides ALT attribute support too.
You can learn more and download the WebPStack here. If you decide to use this stack in your projects, please consider making a $10 or more donation through the contribute page. WebPStack might look simple, but is the outcome of many hours of dedicated research, coding and testing. The stack is provided in the hope it will greatly speed-up your ability to use WebP images in RapidWeaver today and distance yourself from complicated code and other technicalities. Tell your friends about it too! Donations towards free stacks help to directly fund future work.
