Pixelmator adds 'world first' WebP support

Google recently announced the WebP image format boasting 40% greater image compression over JPEG and JPEG2000, and just this morning we covered a plug-in that brings browser support for the fledgling standard. Now Pixelmator, the slick Mac image editing suite that we've covered several times before, has added "the world's first" WebP compatibility into its armory. In the words of the Pixelmator team:

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!).

There's one small caveat however -- if you want to use WebP in Pixelmator's export for Web feature, you'll need to turn it on using the Terminal. Simply cut and paste the following, with Pixelmator closed, into Terminal:

defaults write com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator enableWebP YES

Now, whether WebP will really catch on and replace the web and industry standard JPEG is anyone's guess. Pixelmator's ready, but if I were a betting man, my money would be on no. Then again, with the power of Google and their excellent Chrome browser behind it, anything is possible.

[via MacworldUK]

Tags: commercial, google, image editing, ImageEditing, Mac, MacOSX, OSX, pixelmator, webp