The major limitation of this format is that it is constrained to 256 colours. GIF supports LZW lossless compression and multiple frames that allow us to produce simple animations. Let’s remind ourselves, in chronological order, of the three most important classic formats for web images. Classic image formats for the web with universal support We’ll then move on to to explore AVIF, and end with a summary putting all the main points together.Ĭomments on advantages and drawbacks build both on the review of available authoritative reports and first-hand observations during the development and deployment of tools for image optimization pipelines in ecommerce workflows. In this article, we’ll start with a short revision of the classic formats, followed by a description of WebP and HEIC/HEIF.
Another new image format - AVIF - is expected to enter the scene in 2019 with promise of sweeping through the whole web. They have only partial, but significant, support by major players among web browsers and mobile operating systems. JPEG, WEBP, HEIC, AVIF? This guide will help you choose.Īfter decades of the unrivaled dominance of JPEG, recent years have witnessed the appearance of new formats - WebP and HEIC - that challenge this position.
