Comment on Critical vulnerability in WebP Codec has browser vendors scrambling for updates
WhoRoger@lemmy.world 1 year agoProblem is, it takes a huge brand like Google or Apple to push a new format for something basic like images. Do you know how many alternative image formats exist that have tried to be the next jpg/gif/png? Hundreds.
I just really wish people would stop clinging to these old formats, especially gif. Maybe when the tech giants get some traction with webp, more open alternatives can get popular as well, once people realize that jpg and gif aren’t the end of everything, and app developers get off their fat asses and start supporting other formats too. It just needs to start somewhere.
Just like ogg probably wouldn’t be a thing if commercial mp3 didn’t pave the way, or we probably wouldn’t have divx/h264… without Real Media and Quick Time. Signal wouldn’t be so popular either without the likes of Skype and Viber.
Of course I’d prefer open, free standards from the start, but you can see how fucking lazy people are (both users and developers) to support new formats.
That said, it’s not like webp is closed or anything, so I’m ok with it.
Zeus@lemm.ee 1 year ago
jpegxl actually has pretty good support - affinity, photoshop, gimp, krita, etc.
it’s only chrome that’s holding it back (even firefox supported it until chrome dropped support). i don’t think it’s lazyness
i have no love for gif (hence i use apng), but all the other alternatives are either videos so show controls by default, not widely supported, or webp. i realise webp is objectively the better format for most things, but i still argue it’s existence is a net negative effect
webp may be open (although actually i’d argue it isn’t, the licences for the decoder and the format itself are both very woolly), but as it’s actively contributing to enshittification by holding back truly open formats i’d say that doesn’t really matter
WhoRoger@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Sorry, 5 graphics programs isn’t “support”. You need support from the millon mobile apps, web sites and image and web libraries. A format that you can only use by yourself or with a handful professionals is useless in practice.
There’s been hundreds of new image formats in the last ~20 years, and none has gotten anywhere.
Even PNG needed a decade for some things to support it properly, and that one really had a brand new massive use case.
People use gif to make videos for crying out loud, and bitch about webp all the time, that’s how massive the pushback against new formats is.
Do you really think jpegxl would get anywhere by itself? No, it would be the same as with jpeg2000 and tons of other formats - first supported by a handful of programs, but not used by anyone else and then forgotten.
Zeus@lemm.ee 1 year ago
i gave those because they’re the most pertinent programmes for people. there are more here if you’re interested
and i’d say that’s not bad for a format that’s only a few years old
i don’t know what this is supposed to mean. xnview supports jxl
because png is good. i’m not defending gif or jpeg, they suck. but png is simple, fast to decode, and open by design. it may not be the best as an image format, but it is good
yeah that’s my point, jxl has been adopted faster than png or webp
i really don’t think many people use gif. most people use gifv or similar (usually webm) without realising it. apart from its very specific use case, gif sucks; so most software automatically converts to something else
jpeg2k had issues other than a lack of support - jxl has deliberately avoided those pitfalls
WhoRoger@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s not how people use images. For an image format to be viable, you need your camera to support it, your gallery app/program to support it, the web sites you upload it to, the messaging platforms you share it through.
If there’s a break in the chain, people will screenshot the picture as png and bitch to you that you’re using something weird.
I’ve been trying to get people to use or support image formats for 15 years, previously as a tech journalist too, and the resistance is totally absurd. “Why change what works”, “just because it’s new doesn’t mean I have to use it” are the typical responses you get from everyone.
Oh you’d be surprised… Gaming videos on Steam, screen recordings, porn clips by amateurs, or just random clips, the amount of low-res gifs with 10s of MB in size is crazy.
Sure, it’s shitty of Google to drop the support, but from experience I’m still unfortunately 100% sure it wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.
Heck, Apple has been using HEIF for years and that’s a trillion dollar company with a huge market share, and you still get shitton of places where you can’t use it.