P: Camera Raw/Lightroom Classic/Lightroom Ecosystem: Support for WebP

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm preparing a bunch of files for the web and would like to use Google's WebP format. How can I export photos in Lightroom to WebP?

[dj_paige]

Adobe almost never discusses if a new feature will be added, and it almost never announces when a new feature will be added.

[Attiwind]

That's exactly why I posted this...
Maybe Adobe could understand that there is demand!

[dj_paige]

That's exactly why I posted this...
Maybe Adobe could understand that there is demand!

By Attiwind

I never mentioned demand. Whether the demand is high or the demand is low, as I said, you are unlikely to hear from Adobe about this potential feature.

Post your feature request in the Ideas section of this forum.

[GermanKiwi]

This post already is in the Ideas section of the forum. 🙂

The best thing we can all do is upvote this post (not the individual comments inside this post, but the post itself), and add our own comments here in support. Even though Adobe won't confirm if/when they're working on this feature, the more upvotes it has, the more likely Adobe will see it and consider it.

[GermanKiwi]

Hi, I'm interested to know the benefits of webp?   Is the picture quality any better than jpeg and why use it, I'm keen to know?  I found this converter https://cloudconvert.com/jpg-to-webp if that helps at all.

The main benefit is that webp images have a significantly smaller file size compared to JPGs with the same compression and image quality. As a result, websites that use webp images load much faster in the browser.

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of existing JPG-to-WEBP converters available on the internet, as well as in virtually all other leading image editing applications - including Photoshop itself. This forum thread doesn't exist because we're lacking the ability to convert images to webp - rather, it exists because we specifically need and want Lightroom itself to "catch up with the times" and support exporting images to webp natively.

Saving an image first to JPG, and then converting it to webp as a second step - eg. using an online converter - results in two instances of lossy compression, which degrades the image quality. It's always better to export natively to the target image format, directly from the source.

[Lumigraphics]

Part of the problem is that numerous formats have been put forward to replace JPEG, including PNG, WebP, JPEG XL, JPEG 2000, HIEC, and AVIF. Each has its merits but its still a horse race. WebP has been pushed by Google and HEIC is now the default image format for iOS so you have competing commercial interests. Compatability is all over the place, and while some devices (desktop computers, cell phones) can be easily updated, many others cannot.

I suspect that HEIC and AVIF will be the formats to win out but who knows.

[Meerkat 1]

What am I missing?  Does not Adobe Systems claim to be the world leader in digital image processing software?  Apparently, without using a lame plug-in like "anyfile", I have to go through all kinds of gyrations to import a very large percentage of photos in the known universe.

If this is true, everyone ever involved with Adobe Lightroom Classic needs to be fired.  Immediately.

Also, LRC absolutely SUCKS for video.  I want to dump Adobe LRC very much.

Thank you for the endless hours of extra work and frustration.  Please send me a product survey.

[charless1202526]

This is not an ideal solution and may I join the chorus of people calling for Adobe to catch up with our needs?  If you have a WordPress website there are plugins that you can use that will automatically convert to webp. I have it running on my website: here is my corporate photography page with quite a few images, if you open on of the images and try to save it you will see that they are webp however I uploaded only jpg.   

'Adobe', there are so many alternatives coming to market now, you guys need to be on the front foot 😉 

[Wienke]

There's an apple in with them oranges. HEIC may have some compression, but it's basically huge (and it's the default on an iOS device, making for nice fat cloud accounts using lots of electricity, ahem). Among the compressed formats, WebP seems to be the best right now, and is widely adopted, so it would make sense for image-organizing software to support it.

[Ambrosial_style1587]

How can I export a photo as WebP from Lightroom Classic?

I have a few hundred photos I need to export as WebP.

I don't want to have to export them as jpg, and then open each one in Photoshop in order to save them as WebP.

Could someone let me know the steps to do this please?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[JohanElzenga]

You have no choice, Lightroom Classic does not support WebP export. Photoshop has batch options using Actions however, so you do not have to open them one by one, but could run an action that saves as WebP on all images in batch. https://www.ias.edu/itg/content/editing-batch-images-photoshop

[Ambrosial_style1587]

Hi Johan, 

Thanks for replying so quickly.

Would you know how to get the best quality image doing these two steps? 

First exporting out of Lightroom in which format?  And then doing the bath conversion to WebP using photoshop.  Would it be best to export from Lightroom in png format?

Hard to believe that Abobe has not built this feature into Lightroom yet.

Best Wishes,

Dave

[JohanElzenga]

I would export from Lightroom Classic in a format that does not have a lossy compression, so tiff or psd. You can delete these images after you converted them to WebP, so their file size doesn't matter.

[Ambrosial_style1587]

Thanks Johan!

[Rob_Cullen]

I might add a suggestion for the (free for individual use) app 'XnConvert'. https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/

It would also require first exporting the images as JPG or TIFF (that can be deleted later).

Then XnConvert has two screens- 1) Add Files (ie. will batch), and 2) [Output] options (options remain as a default.)

Simple.!

[johnrellis]

Another option is to use an Export post-processing action to invoke the free Imagemagick to do the conversion as part of the export. This thread has a number of posts about that:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this Idea:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

[Ambrosial_style1587]

@johnrellis suggested in a post that it might be possible to add the Google Convert code somehow as a Post Processing option in Lightroom.

I would like to get the highest resolution, and best quality but produce very small sized WebP images to be used on a website.

I would like the photos to be sized 1200 x 900 with a DPI of 72, and quality of 80%.

I use a Windows 10 desktop.

The procedure I plan to use is

• Within Lightroom, use the Develop module
  • to adjust all the parameters such as exposure, colour etc.
  • crop to aspect 1200 x 900
  • export as TIFF and select
  • Image Sizing – 1200 x 900 pixels, Resolution 72 DPI
    • Output sharpening un-ticked

There is a Post Processing option in this Lightroom Export screen

@johnrellis suggested in a post that it might be possible to add the Google Convert code somehow as a Post Processing option in Lightroom.

Has anybody ever done this… or could explain the steps needed to set this up?

[Meerkat 1]

How did you get webp into LRC in the first place?  I have been trying to import .webp for years.  My inability to do so is the main reason I want to dump Adobe forever.

[JohanElzenga]

He didn't say anything about importing WebP images. He wants to export some images in WebP format.

[johnrellis]

@Ambrosial_style1587, see these previous posts in this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-ideas/p-camera-raw-lightroom-classic-lightroom-ecosystem-s...

[bpalermini]

I want to add a vote to including a WebP export option from Lightroom Classic. I have a publisher who wants WebP files. It seems like something that should have been included a while ago. 

[Rob_Cullen]

If  you see my post of 5/1/2025 above I suggested XnConvert (free app). Use it like a plugin as a Post Processing set in Export.

I can create WEBP images from Lr-Classic with FOUR mouse clicks!

I first set up XnConvert to 'Output' WEBP files. (It can delete, or not, any JPGs that the Export has created, and auto-close XnConvert after the conversion.)

Set up an Export preset to send the files to XnConvert in the Post Processing panel.

So the method then becomes-

1) Select photos in LrC library

2) Export button (one click)

3) Choose the WebP Export Preset (one click)

4) [Export] (one click)

5) In XnConvert that opens [Convert]  (one click) , done.

Although, yes, an export preset for WebP would be handy.

[GermanKiwi]

The only issue with using a third-party solution like XnConvert is that it involves compressing the image twice: firstly as a jpg and again as a webp. Unless you're able to export it as a tiff instead of a jpg.

That's why we need a native solution directly in Lightroom, as already exists in Photoshop.

[johnrellis]

@GermanKiwi: "The only issue with using a third-party solution like XnConvert is that it involves compressing the image twice: firstly as a jpg and again as a webp. Unless you're able to export it as a tiff instead of a jpg."

Indeed, Xnconvert, Imagemagick, and Google's "cwebp" all will convert from PNG and TIFF to Webp, and all three could be used in LR Export's post-process actions.