P: Add support for WebP

[SensationElle]

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.

[dj_paige]

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.

[johnrellis]

In particular, please add your constructive opinion to this feature request:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/camera-rawlightroom-classiclightroom-... 

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.

[johnrellis]

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.

[MisterMagoo]

Good suggestion, @johnrellis. Thanks! 

For everyone: if you are interested in following his suggestion, here is how to do it using Google WebpTools. 

Please note: the solution works for Windows only, as we need to create and use a DOS batch file. This DOS batch file will be executed after each of your EXPORT actions, and it will create a .WEBP converted version of your images in the same folder you exported the .JPEG one. 

1) download the Goole WebpTools and extract the zip file in a folder. Please extract the files in a folder that you are not going to change, otherwise the batch we are going to build in a few moments will need adjustments.

To simplify the explanation, I will assume that you extracted the files in a folder C:\WEBP, which therefore should contain the subfolders BIN, INCLUDE, LIB and the other files included in the Webp zip file.

The important thing is that in C:\WEBP\BIN you should have the CWEBP.EXE file. 

2) in C:\WEBP, create a new text file calling it CONVERT.BAT. Right click on it and select EDIT (with Windows 11, after right clicking you will first need to select "Show More Options" to see the EDIT menu item).
The file is normally opened with Notepad. 

3) simply copy in Notepad the following batch command, and then save the file. 

FOR %%x IN (%*) DO C:\WEBP\BIN\CWEBP.EXE -q 85 %%x -o "%%~dx%%~px%%~nx.webp"

What does it do? Well: the EXPORT feature of Lightroom will call this batch file passing him ALL the path of the images we have exported, one after one. 

And the FOR... DO loop will execute, for each of them, the CWEBP.EXE command, converting each image in WEBP format, and saving it in the same folder as the original image. 

The "85" you see is the QUALITY of the conversion. If you want a different quality, simply change that value. 

The strange %%~dx%%~px%%~nx.webp is used to remove from the path of the image the file extension (i.e. I need to get rid of ".JPEG"). As you can see, I am appending the ".WEBP" extension to it.

4) Now, let's configure Lightroom so that it executes that batch after each JPEG export. I think you already created a custom EXPORT Preset in Lightroom to export your images as JPEG, right? Otherwise please first create a JPEG export preset in Lightroom, a simple one is enought. 

Now in Lightroom go to FILE menu, then select "EXPORT...", left click on your preset, on the right part of the form go to the bottom section "Post processing", and in After Export select the "Open in Other Application..." option. 

Then click on "Choose..." button and browse to C:\WEBP, selecting the CONVERT.BAT we've just created.

IMPORTANT: before clicking on DONE, don't forget to RIGHT CLICK on your preset (in the left "Preset:" listbox) and select "Update with current settings", otherwise your recent changes to the preset will be lost.

Now you can click on "DONE". 

You're done.

To verify that everything is set correctly, reopen FILE\EXPORT..., select your preset, and verify in "Post-Procssing" that you see "Open in Other application" in After Export, and you see "C:\WEBP\BIN\CONVERT.BAT" in the "Application". 

Now you can select your images in Lightroom and then select the EXPORT preset we've just modified.
In the export folder, you will find both .JPEG and WEBP files. 

If you want to see what the CONVERT.BAT does, please simply add a PAUSE at the end of the CONVERT.BAT file.
Like this: 

FOR %%x IN (%*) DO C:\WEBP\BIN\CWEBP.EXE -q 85 %%x -o "%%~dx%%~px%%~nx.webp"
PAUSE

The batch will pause after the execution, so that you can read the information in the DOS screen where CWEBP is executed. Simply type ENTER and the DOS screen will close.

I hope it'll be helpful for you! Thanks again @johnrellis for suggesting that, I've never realized there was a "post processing" feature in the Export presets!

Bye,

A.-

[Aqualynx]

Please add native support for WebP image format in Lightroom Classic / Lightroom. Both the ability to import WebP images, but also ability to export images in this format.

At the moment Photoshop can open WebP images, but not Lightroom, for some reason.

This would allow cataloguing and managing all those WebP files we have. For example, I have a large collection  DNGs, PNGs etc. AND WebP files. There is no means I can manage those WebP images in Lightroom at the moment. I could convert them to, for example, PNGs but I'd like to (and need to) keep them in their original format. Also, having to do file conversions all the time is not very productive either and greatly interferes with the workflow.

It is already pretty widely used and adopted image format, so it's hard to understand why there is no support yet. 

[johnrellis]

"I have a large collection  DNGs, PNGs etc. AND WebP files. There is no means I can manage those WebP images in Lightroom at the moment."

As a workaround while waiting for Adobe to implement this, consider the Any File plugin.

[alexskunz]

With WebP supported by all modern browsers now, it would be incredibly useful if Lightroom Classic could export this format directly, in particular for Publish Collections.

(I'm using WP/LR Sync to upload files directly to my WordPress site from Lightroom Classic; WordPress supports WebP...).

[ErikVerheggen]

LrC 12 installed. Great new features. BUT WHERE IS WEBP support???????????

[ErikVerheggen]

Thank you @MisterMagoo 
It work great.
Only finding the correct zip file to download was not so easy. But the rest is perfectly explained and easy to do. 

Merci!

[michelep1011223]

Thank you so much for this!

Is there any way to tell lightroom or this conversion tool to automatically delete the jpeg files?

Thank you again!

[MisterMagoo]

Hi @michelep1011223 , I cannot check it now, but it should be enough to add at the end of the batch file (but before the PAUSE command, if you decided to keep it) this line:

FOR %%x IN (%*) DO DEL %%x

It should be working. Give it a try with a couple of test images 🙂 

[MisterMagoo]

Hi @ErikVerheggen :  the file to be downloaded should be this one below, I am leaving it here for future users 🙂

[Wienke]

I’d like to be able to export/import WebP files in Lightroom to cut down on file sizes for lossy lores projects.

I’m either painting digitally or taking photos of art with a makeshift setup. These images are not highly refined and do not require lossless formats, which take prohibitive amounts of disk space. I’m happy that jpeg is supported (though, oddly, not with Photoshop’s efficiency), but WebP is superior, providing the same resolution at a significantly smaller file size.

More important, these files are ultimately intended for display on portable devices, where storage is limited. It would make no sense to organize them as lossless files in Lightroom and then have to maintain a separate storage system for the fully processed images. I need Lightroom to be the master organizational solution.

Recently Photoshop added full support for WebP, which many users will use for internet projects, and they then will have resources that they will want to organize in Lightroom. Surely that provides some incentive for Adobe to add this feature.

Bottom line: There’s no reason to exclude this well-established lossy format (WebP), when Lightroom already supports an inferior option (jpeg).

[GoldingD]

Previously submitted Idea, both in LrC, and Camera RAW, see:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-implement-an-option-for-webp-in-lr-exports/idi-p/11981251 

Your post was moved, in fact to that link)

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

Workarounds existing for import (see above links), none for imports, 

[johnrellis]

While waiting for Adobe to implement this, see this post for how to export in Webp format:

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

And see this post for how to catalog Webp pics:

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

[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!