WebP is an image format developed by Google that provides superior compression and faster loading times compared to other image formats. However, not all image viewers support WebP images out of the box.

Using Eye of GNOME

To enable support for WebP images on the default image viewer on Ubuntu, which is Eye of GNOME (also known as eog), you can follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Terminal

Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on your keyboard or by searching for it in the applications menu.

Step 2: Install WebP Plugin

To install the WebP plugin for eog and its dependencies, run:

sudo apt install eog-plugin-webp

Step 3: Restart eog

Restart eog to load the new plugin. You can do this by closing and reopening the application or by running:

eog –quit
eog &

Step 4: Open WebP Image

Open a WebP image with eog. You can do this by right-clicking on the image file and selecting “Open With” -> “Eye of GNOME” from the context menu. Alternatively, you can open eog and use the Open dialog to navigate to the WebP image file.

The WebP image should now be displayed in eog. You can zoom in and out, rotate the image, and perform other actions as you would with any other image format supported by eog.

Using dwebp

dwebp is a command-line tool for decoding WebP images. It is included in the webp package and can be used on Linux and other operating systems. The dwebp tool converts a WebP image into a PNG, PPM or PAM image format, which can be viewed with any image viewer that supports the chosen output format. The name dwebp stands for decode WebP.

The dwebp tool is useful for viewing and converting WebP images on systems that do not have native support for the WebP format. It can also be used to convert WebP images to other formats for compatibility with different software applications.

Step 1: Open Terminal

Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on your keyboard or by searching for it in the applications menu.

Step 2: Install WebP

To install the webp package along with its dependencies, run:

sudo apt install webp

Step 3: Navigate to WebP Directory

Navigate to the directory where the WebP image is located using the cd command. For example, if the image is located in the Pictures directory, you can navigate to it by running:

cd ~/Pictures

Step 4: View WebP Image

View the WebP image using the dwebp command. For example, to view an image named example.webp, run:

dwebp example.webp -o example.png

This command will convert the WebP image to a PNG format and save it as example.png in the same directory.

Note: You can also use the cwebp command to convert other image formats to WebP format. For example, to convert a PNG image to WebP format, run:

cwebp example.png -o example.webp

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can easily view WebP images on your Ubuntu system by using the WebP plugin for eog or the dwebp command from the webp package.