1. Name
2. Synopsis
3. Description
4. Options
5. Additional options
6. Examples

Name

cwebp - compress an image file to a WebP file

Synopsis

cwebp [options] input_file -o output_file.webp

Description

This page documents the cwebp command.

cwebp compresses image using the WebP format. Input format can be either PNG, JPEG, TIFF or raw Y'CbCr samples.

Options

The basic options are

-o string

Specify the name of the output WebP file. If omitted, cwebp will perform compression but only report statistics.

-h, -help

A short usage summary.

-H, -longhelp

A summary of all the possible options.

-version

Print the version number (as major.minor.revision) and exit.

-q float

Specify the compression factor between 0 and 100. A small factor produces smaller file with lower quality. Best quality is achieved using a value of 100. The default is 75.

-alpha_q int

Specify the compression factor for alpha compression between 0 and 100. Lossless compression of alpha is achieved using a value of 100, while the lower values result in a lossy compression. The default is 100.

-f int

Specify the strength of the deblocking filter, between 0 (no filtering) and 100 (maximum filtering). A value of 0 will turn off any filtering. Higher value will increase the strength of the filtering process applied after decoding the picture. The higher the smoother the picture will appear. Typical values are usually in the range of 20 to 50.

-preset string

Specify a set of pre-defined parameters to suit a particular type of source material. Possible values are: default, photo, picture, drawing, icon, text. Since -preset overwrites the other parameters' values (except the -q one), this option should preferably appear first in the order of the arguments.

-sns int

Specify the amplitude of the spatial noise shaping. Spatial noise shaping (or sns for short) refers to a general collection of built-in algorithms used to decide which area of the picture should use relatively less bits, and where else to better transfer these bits. The possible range goes from 0 (algorithm is off) to 100 (the maximal effect). The default value is 80.

-m int

Specify the compression method to use. This parameter controls the tradeoff between encoding speed and the compressed file size and quality. Possible values range from 0 to 6. Default value is 4. When higher values are used, the encoder will spend more time inspecting additional encoding possibilities and decide on the quality gain. Lower value can result is faster processing time at the expense of larger filesize and lower compression quality.

-af

Turns auto-filter on. This algorithm will spend additional time optimizing the filtering strength to reach a well-balanced quality.

Additional options

More advanced options are:

-sharpness int

Specify the sharpness of the filtering (if used). Range is 0 (sharpest) to 7 (least sharp). This algorithm will spend additional time optimizing the filtering strength to reach a well-balanced quality.

-strong

Use a stronger filtering than the default one (if filtering is being used thanks to the -f option). Strong filtering is off by default.

-segments int

Change the number of partitions to use during the segmentation of the sns algorithm. Segments should be in range 1 to 4. Default value is 4.

-partition_limit int

Degrade quality by limiting the number of bits used by some macroblocks. Range is 0 (no degradation, the default) to 100 (full degradation). Useful values are usually around 30-70 for moderately large images. In the VP8 format, the so-called control partition has a limit of 512k and is used to store the following information: whether the macroblock is skipped, which segment it belongs to, whether it is coded as intra 4x4 or intra 16x16 mode, and finally the prediction modes to use for each of the sub-blocks. For a very large image, 512k only leaves room to few bits per 16x16 macroblock. The absolute minimum is 4 bits per macroblock. Skip, segment, and mode information can use up almost all these 4 bits (although the case is unlikely), which is problematic for very large images. The partition_limit factor controls how frequently the most bit-costly mode (intra 4x4) will be used. This is useful in case the 512k limit is reached and the following message is displayed: Error code: 6 (PARTITION0_OVERFLOW: Partition #0 is too big to fit 512k). If using -partition_limit is not enough to meet the 512k constraint, one should use less segments in order to save more header bits per macroblock. See the -segments option.

-size int

Specify a target size (in bytes) to try and reach for the compressed output. Compressor will make several passes of partial encoding in order to get as close as possible to this target.

-psnr float

Specify a target PSNR (in dB) to try and reach for the compressed output. Compressor will make several passes of partial encoding in order to get as close as possible to this target.

-pass int

Set a maximum number of passes to use during the dichotomy used by options -size or -psnr. Maximum value is 10.

-crop x_position y_position width height

Crop the source to a rectangle with top-left corner at coordinates (x_position, y_position) and size width x height. This cropping area must be fully contained within the source rectangle.

-s width height

Specify that the input file actually consists of raw Y'CbCr samples following the ITU-R BT.601 recommendation, in 4:2:0 linear format. The luma plane has size width x height.

-map int

Output additional ASCII-map of encoding information. Possible map values range from 1 to 6. This is only meant to help debugging.

-pre int

Specify a pre-processing filter. This option is a placeholder and has currently no effect.

-alpha_filter string

Specify the predictive filtering method for alpha plane. One of 'none', 'fast' or 'best', in increasing complexity and slowness order. Default is 'fast'. Internally, alpha filtering is performed using four possible predictions (none, horizontal, vertical, gradient). The 'best' mode will try each modes in turn and pick the one which gives the smaller size. The 'fast' mode will just try to form an a-priori guess without testing all modes.

-alpha_method int

Specify a algorithm used for alpha compression: 0 or 1. Algorithm 0 denotes no compression, 1 uses WebP lossless format for compression. The default is 1.

-alpha_cleanup

Modify unseen RGB values under fully transparent area, to help compressibility. The default is off.

-noalpha

Using this option will discard the alpha channel.

-lossless

Encode the image without any loss.

-hint string

Specify the hint about input image type. Possible values are: photo, picture or graph.

-v

Print extra information (encoding time in particular).

-print_psnr

Compute and report average PSNR (Peak-Signal-To-Noise ratio).

-print_ssim

Compute and report average SSIM (structural similarity metric).

-progress

Report encoding progress in percent.

-quiet

Do not print anything.

-short

Only print brief information (output file size and PSNR) for testing purposes.

Examples

cwebp -q 50 -lossless picture.png -o picture_lossless.webp
cwebp -q 70 picture_with_alpha.png -o picture_with_alpha.webp
cwebp -sns 70 -f 50 -strong -af -size 60000 picture.png -o picture.webp