LR doesn't support WebP directly. To export to WebP, you'll have to export as TIFF or JPEG and then convert using a third-party converter. You could likely create a Photoshop droplet that uses the Photoshop WebP plugin to convert, and then install the droplet as a post-process action in a LR Export preset, so that you could export directly to WebP.
There's a free Google conversion tool at the bottom of this page which might work as a LR post action. If for some reason you didn't want to use PS to do it. https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/
For Windows, that should probably work fine, since you can run command-line utilities as Export post-processing actions. However, on Mac, I think you'd need to use the Run Any Command plugin to invoke the conversion utility, since you can't directly use a command-line program as an Export post-processing action on Mac.
Looks like WebP is gaining some traction. It is available under the same sort of license as, say, DNG.
I see there is a Ps plugin for the format. Might be nice to make this one of the target export file types in Lightroom.
While it isn't a typical camera format, it attempts to solve the problems that JPEG was intended to address. Nicer photographic images at smaller sizes has been a long time coming.
For now I'm going to experiment with a post-export action to generate WebP images from JPEGs (or TIFFs).
By the end of the year every major web browser will be supporting (or have plans for supporting) the WebP format. The format is completely open source, so I am not sure why Photoshop is so far behind the curve on this. Please add native support in Photoshop. The plugin is a crude work-around for what should be built-in to PS.
Don't export to JPEG if you're going to process them again. Intermediate files should always be lossless, so PNG, TIFF (with encoding that isn't JPEG), or DNG will do.
I have a Shopify e-commerce website where customers upload their photos. I then save them on my Mac and import them into LR. Recently, Shopify started converting all those files to webp. Now, even though I use LR, the premier, industry-standard, I cannot open my customer's photos. Webp is open source and has been around for many years so it doesn't make sense that Adobe hasn't added webp support. I had to buy a converter app to continue my business because Adobe has let me down.
I've successfully managed to get webp working on my site and I'm told that Google give these images preference, add that to speed improvement and you have significant SEO. For that reason alone webp will be a success so Lightroom needs to adapt to this a little faster than it is. I've had to create some script to check the browser and upload both JPG and WepP to account for the browsers that don't cover it (Safari would you believe!!!): Here's the gallery... https://charlessturge.com/corporate-photographer-london let me know if you'd like the html script and I'll post it.
Safari won't be in any rush to support it because Apple standardised on the HEIC/HEIF format (HEVC-based). Better compression and better quality. WebP (and WebM) are a little long in the tooth by comparision (based on VP8), and its successors VP9 and AV1 are failing to live up to their promise of being unencumbered of patent issues (see patent troll Sisvel). Looks like Apple made a good choice, or at least I'm more than happy with it.
It doesn't matter which format is better. WebP recieves better support across the board, so that is the format web developers will prefer, simply by virtue of browser support. Which one is the absolute mathmatical best format, is completely irrelevant. You might not remember the war between VHS and Betamax, which is the defacto example of format war, where the best one didn't win.
Should be fairly simple for Adobe to implement this. The WebP codec is opensource and readily available for a plethora of platforms. Even if people choose not to use it, format support is typically not in anyone's way. Just look at how many formats are supported by Photoshop.
If this doesn't get added very soon, shame on Adobe even more.
WebP exists since 2010 and has an industry-standard for pictures on the web. Yet Adobe doesn't seem to bother. I cannot export them neither in LR nor PS. Yes, there are plugins for PS, but I do my bulk-exports for eventphotos in LR and have no need for PS for sports pictures (for example).
Programs like ACDSee support the webp-format, I still need to convert them after exporting. Pls Adobe implement that format in LR so I don't have to convert hundreds of pictures every time I exported them from LR.
We're not Adobe in this forum. we are other Lightroom Classic users who can't add features to the program. You need to notify Adobe, and you need to do this in another forum which Adobe does monitor and respond in.
and be sure to click Like and Follow at the bottom of the first post. That will make it a little more likely that Adobe will consider implementing the feature and you'll be notified when they do. Product developers rarely participate in this forum and won't see your feedback.
Given that you might be waiting for a long time for Adobe to implement Webp, you might consider this workaround: Install Imagemagick or the Google Webp tools and use a LR Export post-processing action that will invoke Imagemagick's "convert" or Google's "cwebp" to convert the exported photo from JPEG to Webp.
*jeremy_bowling Apple added WebP support to Safari 14 in September 2020. Most content management systems (WordPress, Drupal, etc.) lack native support for WebP.
DNG is completely open-source, but none of the major camera companies uses DNG. None of the major camera companies uses WebP either.
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