Added support for WebP images

[ebndev]

WebP image support is now available across github.com and GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency. Previously, uploading WebP images resulted in broken previews or forced users to download files to view them. This created friction for users that rely on high-efficiency formats like WebP for faster loading and better compression. By supporting WebP, we’re helping users share, collaborate, and showcase assets without compromise.

What’s changed?

WebP support in comment boxes

You can now upload .webp files directly in comment boxes for:

• Issues
• Discussions
• Pull requests
• Gists

Uploaded images in the locations specified above will now display inline, just like PNGs and JPEGs.

WebP rendering for repository blobs & gists

When you upload a WebP image file directly to a repository or gist, the image will render fully inline when viewed. You'll see the image just like with other formats and won't have the "View Raw" feedback.

How to give feedback

We want to hear from you! If you encounter any issues, edge cases, or have suggestions on how WebP support can be improved, leave a comment below! 🚀

[typed-sigterm]

🚀 Is AVIF on the road too?

[goodusername123]

AVIF despite being supported by most browsers is sadly very much not a good image format and has multiple downsides compared to previous image formats.
some of the downsides (not all) include:

• Poorly performing lossless mode that always loses when compared to WebP and sometimes even worse then PNG.
• You can not see a single pixel of an AVIF image until it is 100% downloaded unlike every single other format supported by web browsers (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and WebP).

[typed-sigterm]

The compression rate depends on the specific situation of the image. Since I transitioned from PNG to AVIF, the size of AVIF has been between 0.1x and 1.1x that of PNG, so we defaulted to AVIF.

[tats-u]

Poorly performing lossless mode that always loses when compared to WebP and sometimes even worse then PNG.

You can just use WebP lossless instead. It's an excellent format unlike its lossy variant.

You can not see a single pixel of an AVIF image until it is 100% downloaded unlike every single other format supported by web browsers (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and WebP).

I believe it matters more whether the entirely rendered image looks prettier, less noisy, and less dirty. AVIF is the best at hiding the compression noise.

[juliobbv-p]

AVIF (compared to WebP) also enables 10-bit and 12-bit depth sources, HDR, screen content tooling, and lossy 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. This is in addition to the overall efficiency improvements.

It'd be nice for GitHub to natively support AVIF, so we don't have to work it around by renaming AVIFs to ".jpg" upon upload.

Here's an example of an HDR AVIF. It's a 4K screenshot, yet it's only 252 KB!

[tats-u]

Is AVIF on the road too?

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/169478#discussioncomment-14116729

support for .webp is already in the works and coming soon. I will note down your request for .avif as well as we consider additional extensions.

[VictorMoni]

Thanks for the change! 😸🖖

[onkoe]

no comments except "hell yeah"

[anonymous234]

Well, WebP is literally 15 years old now, and has been universally supported in every OS and browser for over 5 years, but better late than never.

[gregjotau]

@ebndev the preview is not working for deleted files. Works for added files.

Usecase: You obviously want to see both what images was removed/added on a PR without extra clicks.

[ebndev]

Hi @gregjotau, thanks for being a part of the GitHub Community!

You're right— GitHub automatically previews images in PRs when files are added or modified, but not when an image is deleted. This applies regardless of file type.

We announced some updates earlier this year: Improved pull request "Files changed" experience. In that post, we listed known limitations, one of them being that rich diff previews for images (SVGs, PNGs, etc.) and markdown aren’t yet supported, but work is actively being done here.

You can follow along for updates in this feedback discussion, and feel free to leave any additional comments in that thread 😄