WEBP is a raster graphic format, while ICO is a vector graphics file format, each exhibiting different levels of versatility in usage and adoption. Choosing between these file formats can be difficult, and webmasters and designers must choose WEBP for web imagery and ICO for icon imagery.
The article exhaustively compares ICO and WEBP images concerning compression technique, structure, support for animation and transparency, image quality and size, browser support, and web performances.
When is WEBP better than ICO?
WEBP images are smaller and of superior quality, while ICO images contain many quality icons, prolonging website loading time. This makes WEBP images suitable for maintaining visual quality and optimizing web performance.
The advantages of ICO images include scalability, ensuring icons are displayed optimally on different screens, and integrating multiple images at varying color depths and sizes, resulting in visually attractive and detectible icons.
When is ICO better than WEBP?
The ICO images are scalable to any size but retain high-quality stature and visual appeal increasing their usage for icon imagery. In contrast, WEBP images are used for web imagery because they are smaller and load faster online.
This makes ICO images suitable for creating recognizable and visually attractive icons for websites and applications.
WEBP images provide significantly smaller images, support animation and transparency, and enhance web performances, making them a versatile choice for most web imageries.
ICO versus WEBP Table Comparison
Differences and similarities between WEBP and ICO images
ICO and WEBP images are versatile file formats similar in transparency, lossless compression, storage mediums, animation, and image quality support. However, these file formats differ in structure, file size, lossy compression, web performance, and browser support.
Transparency
Lossless ICO and lossless WEBP file formats support alpha channel transparency at varying levels. WEBP is a bitmapped file format that supports multi-sample pixels by encoding files with an alpha channel, allowing data transparency.
WEBP also integrally supports lossy transparency. The alpha channel transparency in a WEBP file is linked to all pixels, specifying the file’s transparency level.
WEBP’s pixels support transparent images such as graphics or logos with non-rectangular shapes. On the other hand, lossless ICO file format supports 8 bits of transparency or an 8-bit alpha channel.
It handles transparency by allowing developers to add semi-transparent areas such as glass-like effects, anti-aliasing, and shadows to an ICO image. This implies that an ICO supports icons with different transparency levels, color depths, and varying dimensions.
The support for transparency in both file formats enables webmasters and website designers to enhance WEBP and ICO images with varying transparency or opacity levels.
File Size
ICO images or files tend to be comparatively larger than WEBP files. The file format contains multiple files or images of varying color depths and sizes, which results in an overall increase in an ICO file size.
Unlike WEBP files, the ICO file format can be scaled downwards or upwards to suit any screen size optimally. However, whereas scalability might be a minor issue for each icon, multiple icons necessitate more storage space and prolonged image loading times than WEBP.
TinyPNG or PNGOUT algorithms compress ICO files into a smaller file size, although the compressed ICO (PNGOUT) file is nearly an exact image.
In contrast, the WEBP uses efficient VP8 or VP8L coding that significantly compresses into smaller sizes than ICO. Lossless WEBP images are smaller compared to lossless ICO images. Alternatively, the vector graphics ICO files are heavier than the bitmapped or raster graphics WEBP files.
Image Quality
The resolution level and bit-depth allow the ICO files to generate photorealistic or highly detailed icons. WEBP images are both high and low-resolution files. Its image resolution depends entirely on the original image's resolution, encrypted into the WEBP format.
ICO file formats allow users to store multiple icons of different sizes and color resolutions in a single file. This makes it easier to design crispy and clear icons for displaying on various screen resolutions and devices.
Both ICO and WEBP images are of high quality. The two file formats support a bit depth of 24-bit RGB color with an 8-bit alpha channel. ICO and WEBP file formats use 8 bits for each of three RGB color channels, totaling 24-bit RBG color support.
An ICO file or image is in vector graphics file format. Its icons can be scaled downwards or upwards to varying sizes without losing image quality. The file format is hardly pixelated as WEBP and preserves all image details during lossless ICO compression.
Conversely, WEBP images encounter compression artifacts under the lossy method, but lossless WEBP is efficient and preserves image quality. ICO images are high-quality, lossless WEBP images are high-quality, and lossy WEBP can be low-quality.
Performance
The ICO files are relatively larger than the WEBP filargerUlikeke WEBP file; the ICO files have multiple images or icons with varying color depths and sizes. Such features increase the overall size
of ICO files, making them inferior to WEBP files regarding website performance or speed.
WEBP’s small file sizes improve websites' responsiveness over ICO files, resulting in enhanced user experience and optimization of search engines.
Structure
The WEBP file or images are in a raster graphics format, while an ICO file is in a vector graphics file format. ICO files are made of icons with various color depths and sizes. Both file formats use lossless compression techniques, but WEBP also uses lossy compression.
It comprises a CUR or an Icon directory (ICONDIR), which contains the ICONDIRENTRY structure for every image in the ICO file. A contiguous block with image bitmap data closely follows each image file.
The file format has the AND bitmap – the XOR bitmap and an image mask. The image bitmap data is either in PNG or Windows BMP Format, which excludes the BITMAPFILEHEADER structure.
It contains multiple or a single small image with different color depths and sizes. The multiple sizes of an ICO image permit the scalability of each icon.
On the other hand, a WEBP is a bitmap file format that stores or defines images using pixels. A WEBP file predicts (video) pixels using a technique comparable to VP8.
The VP8 breaks the frame into fragments called macroblocks, similar to all block-based codecs. VP8L or VP8 image data are enclosed within the RIFF-based container.
WEBP groups its pixel values using blocks beside them while encoding only the emerging differences. It uses pre-existing images to reconstruct new pixels using predictive coding.
The file formats are similar in terms of transparency support. Both ICO and WEBP have inherent alpha channel transparency support, enabling web developers and designers to change the background color.
An ICO file is scalable but not pixelated like WEBP files, making it a versatile choice for icon imagery. WEBP, on the other hand, is a versatile choice for web images because it is smaller and enhances web performance.
Animation
The ICO and WEBP files or images support animation. An ICO file comprises icon features that enable enhanced customization of websites or computer apps that support multiple color depths and resolutions. Such features allow ICO files to be animated.
WEBP supports animation using a WEBP animated variant (WEP-A) that is compatible with animated images. A single animated WEBP file can merge lossy and lossy frames.
While both files support animation, animated WEBP is smaller, comparatively richer, and more appealing than animated ICO.
Storage
ICO files are larger than WEBP files. This implies that WEBP files require less storage space compared to ICO files. An ICO file format stores data in icons for folders, files, and programs.
The stored ICO file data are encrypted to safeguard against unsanctioned processing or access. The stored ICO images retain their color and size.
WEBP compresses and stores image data using the VP8 or VP8L video codec and predictive coding. The storage period for the ICO and WEBP files depends on the condition, handling process, and storage medium.
The compressed and uncompressed ICO and WEBP image information is stored indefinitely in identical storage mediums such as file systems, Content Delivery Networks, cloud, and sub-directory files, folders, or programs.
Compression
WEBP uses lossy and lossless compression methods, while the ICO image format compresses image data using lossless techniques. Lossless ICO and lossless WEBP images preserve all image data, leading to quality retention.
An ICO image format can be compressed using TinyPNG or PNGOUT lossless compression techniques. The algorithms compressed ICO files into smaller, higher-quality files, but the resulting ICO (PNGOUT) file is nearly an exact image.
On the other hand, WEBP uses the VP8 video codec to compress lossless images and predictive coding during lossy compression, resulting in smaller images than the lossless ICO images.
The lossless compressed image restructures the original image when compressing an ICO file. Similarly, lossless WEBP reconstructs new pixels using fragments of an already processed image.
Lossless ICO images are bulkier, high-quality, crisp, and clear, while lossless WEBP images are richer and high-resolution with comparatively smaller bandwidth than ICO files, reducing webpage loading time.
Browser Support
The ICO file format has existed for almost four decades, implying that it should be extensively supported and recognized across multiple applications and browsing platforms. However, ICO is only 0.6% popular among the top 1 million websites and used by only 0.2% of websites.
ICO is supported by Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera but incompatible with Internet Explorer and partially supported by Safari.
The ICO file format is preferred when creating icons because it contains multiple color depths and varying image sizes. However, its popularity rating is relative to WEBP since it is hardly found in the most commonly used file stores.
WEBP is now used by 93.3% of popular web browsers and sites such as Instagram.com, Apple.com, Wordpress.org, Nytimes.com, Wordpress.com, Cloudflare.com, Whatsapp.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com, and Github.com.
Opera, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Brave fully support WEBP. Thus, WEBP’s wider browser support and compatibility outperform the ICO format's adoption and popularity across different browsing platforms.
Its files are smaller and load faster than ICO files. ICO files are only compatible with and supported by Windows platforms. It is difficult to use ICO files or images across different applications and platforms.
Conclusion
WEBP offers significantly smaller but superior-quality images that enhance web performance than ICO, although ICO is used to create scalable, multi-colored pictures with varying color depths and sizes.
Although both file formats support animation and transparency, WEBP is known for its versatility in providing web imagery with increased website responsiveness.
ICO files are scalable icons that can be displayed optimally without losing quality, making them a resourceful option for icon imagery.