The WordPress.com image service, which delivers the images bloggers use in their posts to their audiences, now supports the WebP image format.

With this addition, served images can be reduced by up to 34% in file size compared to a JPEG image of the same quality. This means images will load faster and annoy users less.

Here’s the comparison WordPress provides:

“While WebP isn’t currently supported by all browsers (see the WebP FAQ for more details), you don’t have to worry about anything,” says David Newman on the WordPress.com blog. “We auto-detect which browsers your readers are using to make sure they can enjoy your travel photography, family pictures, or recent illustration work at the best possible quality. Our system will always serve your viewers the best image format at the highest speed possible.”

For more on the format, Google has a study comparing compression between WebP and JPEG here.

Images via WordPress.com