October 6, 2010
Pixelmator 1.6.2 Adds WebP Support
We simply can’t stop! Ten short days have passed since Pixelmator 1.6.1 was released, and what do you know? Today we are hitting your Macs with another great update of Pixelmator. Even more, this one might be huge.
You have probably already heard of that image format Google is working on called WebP (pronounced “weppy”, /(w?p??)/ ). This format achieves over 40% more compression than JPEG and JPEG 2000, without loss of image quality. This means that your images look good while being much smaller in size. It also means a faster experience on your site, smaller hosting costs, and a better Web—and, of course, happier people.
I am very excited to announce that Pixelmator 1.6.2 is the world’s first app to bring WebP support (of any kind). What’s more, it’s not just some microscopic experimental support; it’s complete, full, total, absolute WebP support!
So you can use Pixelmator 1.6.2 to easily open and edit WebP images as well as save or export images or image slices to the WebP format to create smaller, better looking images. You can even use Pixelmator’s Export for Web feature to adjust the degree of compression and see the adjustment preview instantly (the glorious Pixelmator’s Save for Web, ha!).
To enable WebP in Pixelmator’s Export for Web feature, simply type this into your Terminal app:
defaults write com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator enableWebP YES
Please note: you don’t have to enable WebP for the Export sheet (File > Export > Other > WebP). It’s on there by default.
In addition to WebP support, Pixelmator 1.6.2 also includes some bug fixes. You can Download the update immediately and enjoy being one the first ones to play with, test, or even use the new WebP format.
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Brian
Are browsers able to read this new Google format, since if your exporting to the web and browsers can’t read it what use is it until all companies jump on board with the new format.
Aidas
If anyone can succeed with bringing new web image format, it’s Google. WebP is not widely supported by browsers yet. Since there was no application that could view/save/open WebP we thought it would be a good idea to be first.
Plus if you enable WebP in Export for Web you can easily compare it versus JPEG.
Kento
I hope the format does succeed so saying “I exported my first WebP file on October 6th, 2010” is something to boast! Also— because it’s superior to jpg, I GUESS.
Oscar Persson
Awesome! Thanks.
This will definitely be good for the web.
Klaus Major
Way coool! Now only the rest of the internet (browsers etc) needs to support this new format 🙂
Anyone remembers JPEG2000?
Great format, too, but did anyone really encounter one? I didn’t 😀
Lets hope Weppy will have a better future.
Philipp
Too bad the support is that CPU-intensive. Unusable on my Mac Pro (!).
M4v3R
WebP support works great, but… There’s a slight change of color when You export WebP as opposed to other formats (as displayed here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1127246/pixelmator-webp.png). When I experimented with WebP, I didn’t noticed any change.
M4v3R
By the way, did Pixelmator just add support for viewing WebP inside Finder for me? If so – that’s even more awesome!
Charles
Seems like kind of a waste of time at this point. No browsers support it and I wonder if this may be the same patent issues the video codec does.
Da3en
I think its really cool how quickly WebP support has been added – but I recommend everyone who is wondering how good WebP actually is to read this: http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/archives/541
Navarro Parker
From what I read, WebP is pretty much crap:
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/googles-new-vp8-based-image-format-could-replace-jpeg.ars?comments=1#comments-bar%23comments-bar
TomkOx
Probably all browsers will support this format in the next 2-3 months, excepts internet exploiter. However I do not use google, google apps, google ads, google formats, google googles etc. I’ll stay with the only one real raster format for the Web: PNG. So: If I do not need this „hot and funny” feature can I skip this update version (1.6.2) of Pixelmator (and can I stay with 1.6.1)?
TomkOx
Image formats and their compression levels means nothing if you will not use caching for them on the Web.
hopethisusernameisgood
Just another example of wasting your time. WebP support does not make sense at this time, since no browser officially supports it and it’s unclear whether they will.
Why don’t you just keep it simple and optimize what you really can do and why people love your software? Loads of bug reports on your support pages, banding in gradients and exporting for web to name a few which are essential features to run this piece of software. If i want to use blown up software i would use photoshop, but this is not what i came here for.
Please keep yourself based and get through your support section to address most of the issues, this will more likely improve the satisfaction of your customers.
Johan Fredrik Varen
Quote: “This format achieves over 40% more compression than JPEG and JPEG 2000, without loss of image quality.” The latter may be interpreted as this being a lossless format, which it’s not. I guess you mean it doesn’t lose any more information than JPEG already does.
Pol
Konvertor was the first software to support fully WebP.
(On PC only)
Alun Bestor
If “it’s not just some microscopic experimental support; it’s complete, full, total, absolute WebP support” then why a hidden preference to enable it in Export for Web?