You download a file with the unfamiliar extension .webp, and nothing will open it. WebP is not an exotic format, but depending on your software it can take one extra step. If you are in a hurry, convert it to PNG or JPG with the tool below.
Convert to PNG or JPG on this page
Choose a WebP file, then press the button for the format you want. The conversion happens only inside your browser, and the file is not sent anywhere.
Conversion happens only inside this browser. The file is never sent to a server.
What WebP is for
WebP is an image format developed by Google. Its main advantage is that it produces smaller files than JPEG or PNG at the same visual quality. Since that directly affects page load time, it is widely used on websites. It also supports transparency (a see-through background).
To see how much smaller, we exported three of our landscape assets (1408x768 pixels) and measured them.
| Image | WebP | PNG | JPG (quality 92) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat picture with few colours | 65KB | 498KB | 110KB |
| Picture with detailed trees and grass | 98KB | 854KB | 165KB |
| Picture with many lines and patterns | 207KB | 1,340KB | 288KB |
PNG came out at six to eight times the size of WebP, and JPG at 1.4 to 1.7 times. The size of a PNG depends on how strongly the exporting software compresses it, so these numbers are one example. The trend does not change, though.
Browsers display it without any setup
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and the other major browsers all display WebP. Dragging the file into a browser window shows you the contents, so most "I cannot open it" situations are happening in software other than a browser.
Using it in Office
Desktop Microsoft 365 (Windows and macOS) supports inserting WebP from version 2402 onward. Insert > Pictures > This Device works as usual.
However, older versions of Office cannot insert it. If you cannot change the version on a work computer, use the converter above, or turn the file into PNG or JPG in one of these ways:
- Open the WebP in a browser, right-click and use "Save image as" to save it as PNG
- Open it in Paint on Windows and save it again as PNG or JPEG
- Open it in Preview on macOS and use Export to change the format
Can you print it?
Printing on your own printer is fine. Commercial print shops, however, may not accept WebP. Check the accepted formats before you submit.
If you need transparency
WebP supports transparency, but some conversion methods fill transparent areas with white. If you want to keep transparency, convert to PNG and check afterwards that the background is still transparent. JPEG does not support transparency, so the background is always filled in (the converter above fills it with white).
Note that our own assets have the background painted in, so they carry no transparency. Saving as PNG does not make the background transparent: the painted background stays as it is. Removing it takes work in an image editor.
About Visual Hub assets
We distribute our assets as WebP. If you need PNG or JPG, every illustration page has three buttons — WEBP, PNG and JPG — side by side under the download heading, so you can export directly from there (profile pictures have two: WEBP and PNG). That conversion also happens only inside your browser.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Insider: Add WebP images to Office creations
Information as of September 2026, when this article was written.