Save WebP files to Original Format Easily in Firefox

[jscher2000]

(Re-post of Crowdicity post which had 40 votes)

Unfortunately, many programs are not compatible/interoperable with the WebP format. Users need a simple way to save images in traditional formats such as JPEG, PNG, and Animated GIF, which often is available from the server.

Background

Since Firefox added image/webp to its Accept headers, server farms often add WebP compression to JPEG, PNG, and Animated GIF files, changing the internal file format without modifying the file extension. That is transparent to users, but there is an issue: when using Save Image As..., Firefox saves the WebP format.

Sites also are starting to use the <picture> tag with a WebP <source> that overrides the traditional format in the <img> tag.

Firefox users often want the original image format to facilitate editing in programs that don't accept WebP, or for other reasons. Whatever the reason, because Firefox doesn't make it convenient, they often resort to using Chrome instead.

Parity with Chrome

In Google Chrome, if the file name has its original .jpg or .png extension, the browser saves in the original format. This appears to be done through a re-request to the server, which is similar to the workaround employed by some Firefox users of opening the Page Info dialog, Media panel, and using the Save As button (this request does not include image/webp in the Accept headers).

Other Evidence

I can tell this is a pain point based on Mozilla Support and r/Firefox posts, and because my WebP-related extensions have a surprisingly large number of users:

* "Save webP as PNG or JPEG (Converter)" - 14,757 users as of 6 March 2022 36,742 users as of Jan. 29, 2023 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/save-webp-as-png-or-jpeg/ )
* "Don't "Accept" image/webp"- 7,092 users as of 6 March 2022 16,773 users as of Jan. 29, 2023 ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/dont-accept-webp/ )

So please, UX folks, take a look at this!

Related Idea

Clipboard functionality should save .webp images as .png 

[Sp4X]

Sure, here you go: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/save-webp-files-to-original-format-easily-in-firefox/idc-p/1855...

[Barthélémy]

Hi,  As usual I have no idea whatsoever what any of this means. I don't know what about:config is or how to go there, wherever "there" is, and what follows is incomprehensible. There is no doubt a huge age gap here.

And I have to wonder what "Making moves" means, coming from that vitally diminutive slavic vampire...

Anyway, I still have found nothing that works for me to download webp as jpg so as to be able to work with them with Photoshop (old version), and I'd greatly appreciate a bit of help that I can translate.

[Sp4X]

These are my solutions:

1. In a web browser, the address bar is the element that shows the current URL. The user can type a URL into it to navigate to a chosen website so type about:config in address bar and ignore the warning message. Then in search field, search for image.http.accept and type image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif

Voilà!

2. Maybe just try to use Firefox for Developers? I just checked, and I have no problems saving images with their original extension on default settings.. or maybe all images I see around in web are just all diffirent extansions than webp 😑🤷‍♂️

3. Try to download a plugin for photoshop which will allow you to open webp images

[Sp4X]

Btw, I just checked GIPHY on Firefox for Developers on default settings and I can still download gif's with gif extansion so where is the problem? 😂