| Readme: | Short: WEBP picture datatype, built on libwebp Uploader: michele.dipace@kaffeine.net (Michele Dipace) Author: Michele Dipace <michele.dipace@kaffeine.net> Type: util/dtype Version: 45.1 Architecture: ppc-morphos Requires: MorphOS 3
webp.datatype 45.1 (12.11.2026)
A picture datatype that reads WEBP files. Once it is installed, every program that opens pictures through datatypes.library (MultiView, the Workbench, image viewers, anything that asks the system for a picture) opens WEBP files too, without knowing anything about the format.
This archive is for MorphOS 3. There is one archive for AmigaOS 3.x (68020 or better), one for AmigaOS 4.1 and one for MorphOS 3. AROS has a WEBP datatype of its own in the system and needs none of them.
It reads lossy pictures (VP8), lossless pictures (VP8L), pictures with alpha in both forms, and the first frame of an animation. It does not write WEBP files and it does not play animations.
The decoding is done by libwebp 1.6.0, the reference library of the WebM project, unchanged.
INSTALLING
Open a Shell, change to this drawer and type
Execute Install
or copy the two files by hand:
Classes/DataTypes/webp.datatype to SYS:Classes/DataTypes/ Devs/DataTypes/WebP to DEVS:DataTypes/
and then restart, or tell the system about the new descriptor:
AddDataTypes REFRESH
If a webp.datatype is installed already, Install shows its version and asks before it replaces it. Another WEBP datatype uses the same two file names, so only one can be installed at a time.
The descriptor recognises a file by its first twelve bytes, not by its name: a WEBP file without the .webp extension is recognised too.
REMOVING
Delete SYS:Classes/DataTypes/webp.datatype and DEVS:DataTypes/WebP, then restart.
WHAT EACH SYSTEM GETS
A datatype hands its pixels to the system's picture.datatype, and what that one can take differs.
AmigaOS 4.1, MorphOS, and AmigaOS 3.2 with picture.datatype 47.9 or later: true colour, and the alpha channel is kept.
AmigaOS 3.5, 3.9, 3.1.4, an older 3.2, or 3.0/3.1 with the picture.datatype of a graphics card system (V43 to 47.8): true colour. These do not know about alpha, so a picture with alpha is laid on a white background first.
Plain AmigaOS 3.0/3.1 (picture.datatype V39 to V42): a planar picture with the best 256 colours for it, dithered. Pixels that are less than half opaque become the transparent colour.
On a 68000 the library refuses to open, and WEBP files are simply not recognised.
CHECKING AN INSTALLATION
Extras/dtprobe opens a picture through datatypes.library, the way any program does, and says what came back:
Extras/dtprobe Extras/pictures/alpha-lossy.webp
The last line is a checksum of the pixels. The checksums the test pictures in Extras/pictures must give are in docs/CHECKS.md, in the source.
MEMORY AND SPEED
A picture is decoded at its full size, in one go. While it is opened the decoded pixels exist twice for a moment: a 512 x 512 picture with alpha needs 2 MB for that moment, plus the file. Pictures of more than 8192 x 8192 pixels and files of more than 64 MB are refused.
On a 68020 the decoding is not quick. On a stock A1200 (14 MHz) a 512 x 512 lossy picture with alpha opens in 17 seconds, a lossless one in 9, a 320 x 240 lossy picture in under 5.
STATUS
This is the first release. It was run in emulators on every system it is made for and, with dtprobe, on three real machines. What was tried and what was not is in docs/CHECKS.md, in the source.
OTHER WEBP DATATYPES
This is not the first WEBP datatype for these systems. Aminet already has these:
util/dtype/webp_dt.lha AmigaOS 4, the first one, from 2010 util/dtype/WarpWebPdt.lha AmigaOS 3.x (a version for each 68k CPU), AmigaOS 4, WarpOS and MorphOS util/dtype/WebPDatatype.lha AmigaOS 3.x, 68020 or better
If one of them is installed and does what you need, you do not need this one. Two WEBP datatypes installed at the same time leave the choice between them to the system, so keep only one.
What this one adds is support for the picture.datatype of a plain AmigaOS 3.0 or 3.1 (V39 to V42), which takes no true colour: there it hands over the best 256 colours for the picture. Its source is free under the GPL, and it is built on libwebp 1.6.0.
SOURCE AND LICENCE
https://github.com/kaffeine1/webp-datatype This archive was built from commit 8323d5fed5d0.
webp.datatype is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version: see COPYING. Copyright (c) 2026 Michele Dipace.
libwebp is Copyright (c) 2010 Google Inc. and is under its own BSD 3-clause licence, with a patent grant: see COPYING.libwebp and PATENTS.libwebp.
HISTORY
45.1 (12.11.2026) First release.
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