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?

[E280172508ijk]

Please make this as easy as selecting JPEG or TIFF on export!!!  🙂 

Thanks much!

[Peter27039808y3hx]

What a strange reaction. 😮 We process hundreds of photos for online web every day. The Webp format has a third smaller capacity than JPG, it is the standard, it speeds up the loading of pages and thus better placement of positions in Google. Tiff is completely out for online web output. I expected LR to be primarily a production tool and not a toy for creative photographers. It's sad that today I have to use a competing tool in addition to LR only for WEBP export.

[thomas5C1C]

Hi @MisterMagoo  

Is the text file just a notepad? I'm really a noobie when it comes to this stuff

thanks

[20pictures]

This works in theory ...but by the time the webP is created, the original export file has been written to the LightRoom Catalog. Deleting it with the BAT command will leave a 'lost file' in your system. You are much better off exporting to a webP folder, then removing 'original' export files from there.

[20pictures]

@thomas5C1C 

Yes ...open Notepad & paste in your code. Save with a .bat file extension...

[MisterMagoo]

@20pictures well... no, the exported pictures are not saved into your catalog. Therefore, it is absolutely safe to delete the exported JPEGs. Unless I am not missing something, I do not have any impact on my catalog after I delete the exported JPEGs. 

[20pictures]

Building on the suggestion by @johnrellis and the work by @MisterMagoo with the Goolge WebpTools...

If anyone is interested in using ImageMagick, you will find there is a wealth of processing options that are not available in the precompiled Google WebP Tools. As I already have it installed to use LR/Mogrify export plugin, it seemed a preferable choice.

https://imagemagick.org/script/webp.php

Installation is a similar process:

• Lightroom Exports Post-Processing panel is used to Open in Other Application, your path should be similar to:

          C:\webP\convertWebP.bat

• The convertWebP.bat looks like this for production:

• The convertWebP.bat looks like this for troubleshooting:

Please note, as previously mentioned ...by the time the webP is created, the original export file has been written to the LightRoom Catalog. Deleting it with the .bat command will leave a 'lost file' in your system. You are much better off exporting to a webP folder, then removing 'original' export files from there.

This does NOT apply to the Google WebP Tools method. A bit of a trade-off for the increased conversion control.

[johnrellis]

"by the time the webP is created, the original export file has been written to the LightRoom Catalog."

This only occurs if you have the option Add To Catalog checked:

or if you're exporting to a folder which is enabled for auto import via File > Auto Import.

[20pictures]

@johnrellis ...interesting point. I needed the webP in the Catalog so that option was checked. I'm going to do more work on this as the webP compression isn't great & I want to see if it is a viable option to JPEG for photographer's web images. Shame we can't delete posts as I had wanted to remove my initial comment about this while I did more tests & amended reviews will be confusing. I'd like to do a detailed review of the ImageMagick process for all future readers ...credits to you & @MisterMagoo . 

[Justin31477535m52o]

Is Adobe considering adding the functionality to export photos from Lightroom in the WebP image format to provide users with enhanced compression efficiency and support for transparency on the web?

[Keith Reeder]

As you'll doubtless have read in the very first reply in this thread, you're not talking to Adobe, and nobody here knows Adobe's plans.

[Ioannis5E6D]

As long as Adobe ignores user's feedback for adding such a basic functionality in Lightroom, this workaround is a great way to have the job done. Many thanks for adding this info! 

[Ian Lyons]

Adobe doesn't ignore User Feedback. Nevertheless, 18 votes hardly constitutes overwhelming interest in adding support for WebP.

[Ioannis5E6D]

I think the fact that WebP is the most effecient image format for image web display together with Adobe's interest for the web, Lightroom has a dedicated section and most of its tools have web applications, makes it completely irrelevant how many people have voted in a users' forum specific topic.  

[Valokammi]

Is there anybody out there? It is 2023 and webp format export still missing!

[Sanpanza]

Does AnyFile just alow for reading additional file formats but NOT exporting large Photoshop files as Webp files ?

[johnrellis]

"Does AnyFile just alow for reading additional file formats but NOT exporting large Photoshop files as Webp files ?"

Correct -- Any File is just a simple tool that lets you manage any type of file in your catalog. It doesn't provide any mechanisms for editing other image formats or exporting them.

[Sanpanza]

Update to original question from one year ago. I there still no way to batch export PSD or Tiff files as Webp files?

[Earth Oliver]

Photoshop finally added webp support last year, so let's hope that Lr/ACR catches up in a few years.

[johnrellis]

"I there still no way to batch export PSD or Tiff files as Webp files?"

Not built-in to LR. You can use a LR LR Export post-processing action with free utilities to do it, as described in these two posts:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-implement-an-option-for-webp-in-lr-exports/...

[crowdyke]

The thing that really annoys me about LrC is that it does not even recognise webP images. This means that I cannot index those items nor can I add them to a Collection. This disrupts my workflow. 

I love Lightroom.

Please add webP to the images you support.

[Max23264295jy9c]

This thread is just more proof that Adobe doesn't care about it's customers or actually improving it's products.  How is webp not yet supported? 

[GermanKiwi]

I'm also desperate to have support in Lightroom Classic for exporting to WebP. Literally every main browser supports it now, and it's the industry standard for web. Photoshop now has native support for saving as webp - so why not Lightroom?

[TomHackettPhotography]

It appears that LrC does not recognize WebP files as candidates for import.  Finder > Open With Lightroom Classic does not work for WebP files.  WebP files are not automatically imported when they are added to a watched folder. 

Photoshop has no problem opening WebP files.  This is increasingly important because Midjourney saves images as WebP when they have been upscaled by Upscale (4x).

[Attiwind]

The WEBP format for the web is now essential.

PhotoShop now exports to WEBP but Lightroom is a little behind on this format.
When will we have the possibility to import and above all export in WEBP?

Is this only useful to me or can I speak for many of you?