# WEBP - WEBP

Driver short name

WEBP

Build dependencies

libwebp

GDAL can read and write WebP images through the WebP library.

WebP is a new image format that provides lossy compression for photographic images. A WebP file consists of VP8 image data, and a container based on RIFF.

The driver rely on the Open Source WebP library (BSD licensed). The WebP library (at least in its version 0.1) only offers compression and decompression of whole images, so RAM might be a limitation when dealing with big images (which are limited to 16383x16383 pixels).

The WEBP driver supports 3 bands (RGB) images. It also supports 4 bands (RGBA)

XMP metadata can be extracted from the file, and will be stored as XML raw content in the xml:XMP metadata domain.

## Driver capabilities

Supports CreateCopy()

This driver supports the `GDALDriver::CreateCopy()` operation

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

## Creation options

Various creation options exists, among them :

- QUALITY=[1-100]: Defaults to `75`. By default the quality flag is set to 75, but this option can be used to select other values. Values must be in the range 1-100. Low values result in higher compression ratios, but poorer image quality.

- LOSSLESS=[TRUE​/​FALSE]: Defaults to `FALSE`. By default, lossy compression is used. If set to TRUE, lossless compression will be used.

- LOSSLESS_COPY=[AUTO​/​YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.7) Defaults to `AUTO`. Whether conversion should be lossless. In AUTO or YES mode, if LOSSLESS=YES and the source dataset uses WEBP compression, lossless copying of it is done. If set to NO, or in AUTO mode if the source dataset does not use WEBP compression, the regular conversion code path is taken, resulting in a lossless or lossy copy depending on the LOSSLESS setting.

## See Also

- WebP home page