Dev migrates 23 sites to WebP/AVIF, shares key image optimisation lessons
A developer spent a month migrating 23 client websites from JPEG and PNG formats to WebP and AVIF, documenting the results and practical takeaways. AVIF files are roughly 30% smaller than WebP at equivalent quality, but inconsistent Safari support means iOS-heavy sites still require WebP fallbacks. The most dramatic gains came not from format switching alone, but from capping image width at 1,200px and setting quality to 80, with one site shrinking page weight by 97%. Lazy loading combined with these two settings accounted for the bulk of performance improvements, with format conversion described as a secondary benefit. The developer also flagged HEIC files from iPhones as a common pipeline problem, recommending local in-browser conversion before processing.
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