Discourse (BLF’s forum software) now fully supports static webp images!
All you have to do it post the URL of the image (that ends in .webp) on a new line, and BAM, the image is posted in line.
This was not true a couple of days ago.
Anyway, most people don’t care about webp images, but I think that it’s the best image format currently supported by almost all browsers.
Not many free image hosting sites (that offer unlimited storage) support webp images.
I did a little research, and these are all of the best free images hosting sites that support webp images (that I know of):
ImgBB - doesn’t rename or resize files
Lensdump - renames files
Freeimage.host - renames files
Postimage - resizes files
Postimage says that it doesn’t resize images, but in my experience, it does.
I like ImgBB the most because it doesn’t rename or resize files.
It also has a really nice interface.
I’m going to quit using Abload.de, Imgur, & Freeimage.host, and just use ImgBB for BLF.
Abload and Imgur don’t support webp images, and Abload is hosted in Germany, so their images load slowly in the U.S.
ImgBB only allows family-friendly images, so really sexy (or violent) images are not allowed.
So, if you care about free image hosting sites that supports webp images, there’s a few options for you to choose from, depending on what you’re interested in.
Necrobump!
I’m going to quit uploading images to ImgBB.
They are very unreliable, and many times the images that I post to ImgBB don’t appear on forums.
I’m going to try Lensdump, but I cannot recommend it yet because I’ve barely used that site.
EDIT1:
Lensdump does not offer free accounts all of the time anymore.
I was going to create a new account, but I’m not willing to pay for it.
EDIT2:
Looks like Lensdump will cancel your account if anyone uses your images for commercial use.
I cannot prevent others from using my images commercially, so I will not use Lensdump.
For BLF, if I’m feeling lazy, I’ll hotlink the image, but otherwise I’ll upload the image to the BLF server.
For other sites, I’m liking freeimage.host for image hosting.
I’ll try that site out and see if the images post correctly or not.
I don’t think freeimage.host is perfect, but it seems like the “least worst” option for me.
I’ll report back after a while and maybe recommend that site if I still like it.
Hmm…
Freeimage.host works more frequently than ImgBB, but it does not work 100% of the time.
I’ll keep on using it for other websites, but I cannot fully recommend it.
There is a better format called “avif” which is basically an AV1 but for image.
Avif format is supported for most browsers making it a new baseline of 2024 based on this page Can I use avif
The tricky part is avif natively supported on Android 12 or higher. (Although there are avif viewer app that work on older Android). No idea for iOS.
I check certain websites every two weeks.
Ever since the above post (Sep 12, 2024), Freeimage.host has worked 100% of the time that I have checked those certain websites.
I think I can finally recommend Freeimage.host to those that want a free image host for webp images.
Yep, avif is better than webp in some ways.
Once avif is supported about as much as webp is supported, I plan to use avif in addition to webp images.
I noticed that AliExpress already uses avif for their images.
Yes, I noticed this too in some shopping apps. When I save the image, it download as avif file.
On older device however, it fall back to jpeg which is good for compatibility.
I think other site will switch to avif in the future for even smaller file size than webp. This will also save bandwidth in the long run
