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WebP a New Image Format from Google

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WebP Logo

There is a huge demand for everything to be faster, especially internet speeds. We are constantly trying to see how much data we can pack into our devices and how quickly we can do it. Instead of always focusing on giving each user more bandwidth, it also helps to reduce the size of the files that we are trying to send and receive. The combination of these two methods can greatly improve overall internet “speed”.

The development team at Google has focused on the latter of these two and they have created a new image format which is called WebP. WebP is an image format specifically designed for the web and it’s based off of the VP8 video codec. Google claims it’s WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to the PNG format. Google also says that WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller in size when compared to JPEG images.

WebP is not widely supported, mostly because it’s brand new, but Google is trying to change that and they hope to completely replace the current web image standards. You can find our more information on this new image format on Googles’ own developer page.

A Great Free Alternative to Photoshop

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Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly useful tool and it seems that the only limitation is your imagination. The only set back to using such powerful software could be it’s price tag.  The full version of Adobe Photoshop retails for $699 and if you want you can “rent” Photoshop for $19.99 per month but you must commit to a year long subscription or you will have to pay $29.99 per month. That’s a lot of money to throw down, especially for non-professional use, but there’s no need to fear, there are other options.

There is a really good alternative to Photoshop and it’s called GIMP which is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP offers up many of the same features as Photoshop and what’s even better is that it’s free!

GIMP Screenshot
GIMP UI

GIMP is loaded with features and you can export your images to many different file formats including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PSD and many more. What I have found to be one of the best features is the ability to download plugins. If there’s a feature or format that you need, you can usually always find a plugin to take care of your needs. You can perform many of the same common tasks that you would expect to find in any other modern image software, including photo retouching and enhancement, resizing/cropping, colorizing, filters and much more.

GIMP UI ScreenshotTwo
GIMP UI

Although most users will be able to jump right into it, those who are used to Photoshop may take a little while to get used to a different user interface. I use both Photoshop and GIMP but I do all of my work in GIMP on my laptop, including most of the photos you see on GeekwithEnvy. If you do get stuck or just want to learn more you can head over the the tutorials section to get up to speed.

GIMP is primarily written in C and was originally intended to to be a reasonably priced or Free image manipulation program for GNU/Linux and UNIX. Today, you can download the software for Mac OSX, Windows, Sun OpenSolaris, FreeBSD and of course GNU/Linux. For complete information you can head here.