How-To Open WebP Images
Have you ever viewed an image in your web browser and you saved it to your computer and later you realized you couldn't open it with your default image viewer? You notice the image has a .webp file extension and it only opens in your web browser. If so, I will show you how you can open them with your default image viewer without any problems.
I recently upgraded one of my laptops from to newest version of Ubuntu MATE LTS. After the upgrade completed, I realized that I could no longer open images with the .webp file extension with my default image viewer (Eye of MATE).
WebP is an image format developed by Google that supports animation and alpha transparency. Many websites today use the .webp format because it makes the images load faster within the browser. However, most Linux distributions today do not generate thumbnails for previewing the WebP images in file manager. Below is one of my laptops with no thumbnails for the .webp images.
You can fix these issues in Linux by adding WebP support by installing webp-pixbuf-loader library. You will the be able to open WebP files in your default image viewer and displaysthumbnails for WebP files in your file manager.
Description of files:
* webp-pixbuf-loader is a WebP file format decoder - GdkPixbuf loader.
* webp - Image format providing lossless and lossy compression for web images and allows you to convert
images to .webp format.
* webp-pixbuf-loader is a WebP file format decoder - GdkPixbuf loader.
* webp - Image format providing lossless and lossy compression for web images and allows you to convert
images to .webp format.
Open your Terminal and enter the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:helkaluin/webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt update
sudo apt install webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt-get install webp
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:helkaluin/webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt update
sudo apt install webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt-get install webp
To remove them from your system open your Terminal and enter the following:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:helkaluin/webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt remove webp-pixbuf-loader
sudo apt remove webp
After you install those files on your Linux system check to see if you can see thumbnail images and are able to open .webp files. Below is my desktop with those files installed.
Below is the results of opening on the "sample1.webp" imagein my default image viewer.
You may need to change the default viewer to prevent the .webp image from opening in your browser. Right-click on the .webp image and highlight Open With and then click on Other Application... option.
When the Open With dialog box opens, click on your default image viewer and make sure the option "Remember this application for "WebP image" files" is checked. Then click the Open button.
Now double-click on a .webp file and see if it opens in your favorite image viewer.
If you want to use your default image viewer and see thumbnails in your file manager, then I highly recommend that you install webp-pixbuf-loader and webp on your system.
Jine 21, 2022