WebP vs PDF
| Property | WebP | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | WebP (Google image format) | Portable Document Format |
| File extensions | .webp | |
| Created by | Adobe; an open ISO standard (ISO 32000) since 2008 | |
| Introduced | 2010 | 1993 |
| Compression | Lossy or lossless; Google measured lossy WebP 25–34% smaller than JPG | Mixed: text and vectors stay sharp; photos inside are usually JPG |
| Transparency | Yes, in both lossy and lossless mode | Pages can contain transparent objects |
| Animation | Yes | No |
| Opens on | All current browsers, Windows 10+, macOS 11+; some older apps and upload forms reject it | Every computer and phone; browsers have built-in viewers |
| Best for | Fast-loading images on websites | Documents that must look the same everywhere: forms, invoices, CVs |
Why convert WebP to PDF?
Most images you save from the web are WebP, and WebP is awkward to print or send: older versions of Windows Photo Viewer, many printers' software and plenty of document workflows do not read it. A PDF opens everywhere and keeps several images together in a fixed order.
Each WebP is decoded by your browser and re-encoded for the PDF. Images with transparency, like logos and cut-out product shots, are stored as PNG inside the PDF so the transparent areas stay clear; other images are stored as high-quality JPEG. For long infographics and web comics, choose "Same size as the image" so a tall picture is not shrunk to fit an A4 page.
Only the first frame of an animated WebP is included. If you need a single image rather than a PDF, convert it with WebP to JPG or WebP to PNG instead.