This week I’ve been wrestling with my non-Photoshop-equipped computer to see if I could get all the modern image formats in without it. I’ve been using GIMP 2 with pluggins and Irfan View to generate the files I need. Let’s see how each format does.
Here’s the JPEG that we’re turning into more modern formats:
The original image is 67 KB
WebP
The WebP version of the image at 85 quality weighs in at 58 KB
JPEG XR
Strangely, the JPEG XR version of the image at 85 quality is 111 KB. There may be an issue with the plugin I used. I’m not sure why it would be larger.
JPEG 2000
The JPEG 2000 version of the image at 85 quality is 78 KB.
Conclusion
It’s odd that only one format, WebP, was smaller than the original. It may be that I’m using poor tools or plugins for the job. I’ll come back later and try it with Photoshop and see what the result are. Tune in next week when I put the images on the site and show you how to point to different files depending on what your browser supports.