Option to disable webp image format?

[MyNameIsNotBob]

Edit: I am basically having to rewrite some of this question because I have discovered something else that throws a wrench into my findings.

This is most likely a Chromium issue as I also experience this with Chrome, but I thought I’d ask here since the support staff is active and perhaps able to implement a fix in Brave.

I don’t understand how Chromium decides when to save a jpg as webp or jpg. When I am collecting images from a Google search, I like to click/drag the image from the browser to my desktop and organize later. Most of the time, the image saves as a jpg, but it’s becoming more common for it to save a webp. This befuddles me because the image in the URL is actually a jpg, but Chromium somehow decides to save it as webp. An example is this image:

Taking the below image URL as an example, if you open that in a new tab or window and click/drag the image directly to a folder, it will be dropped as a webp:

In case of link rot, just go a Google search and click/drag images until you find a webp. Don’t worry, you’ll find one before you know it.

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/the-x-files-fox-2.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1

However, if you right-click the image in the browser and Save image as, you only have the option to save as a jpg:

Now for the aforementioned wrench: If you remove the entire query string from that URL like so:

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/the-x-files-fox-2.jpg

…now it will drag/drop as a jpg (and save as a jpg as well). What is the source of this inconsistency?

Is there a fix that can be implemented in Brave to disable webp altogether? I understand that it’s a new image format on the rise, but it’s not merging into the mainstream lane very elegantly. Lots of people despise this format because of the lack of support for it.

[Mattches]

@MyNameIsNotBob,
Can I call you Bob?
A website (or whoever owns/creates the image) may save an image as webp format intentionally. One of the main reasons being that it is an easy way to stop a user from downloading copyright images for “personal use”. You can still view the image but, as you may have realized, webp always opens in a browser. They are basically making you save a website with an embedded image rather than the actual image data itself.

Furthermore, this is an image formatting decision and takes place out of the browsers hands. You’ll find this same behavior across all browsers.

[MyNameIsNotBob]

@Mattches

Can I call you Bob?

Sure.

@Mattches

They are basically making you save a website with an embedded image rather than the actual image data itself.

webp is an image format. At what point am I saving the website to my desktop when I drag and drop the image from my browser?

Edit: I failed to also take note of this:

@Mattches

as you may have realized, webp always opens in a browser

Are you suggesting that webp is some kind of proprietary document format, hence why it opens in the browser? It’s an image format, and the reason why it opens in your browser is because that’s the application presently associated to the webp file extension. I can have jpg and png open in my browser by default if I want.

@Mattches

A website (or whoever owns/creates the image) may save an image as webp format intentionally. One of the main reasons being that it is an easy way to stop a user from downloading copyright images for “personal use”.

I understand that they will save the image in any format they choose, but the ultimately serve my browser a jpg, at least according to the file in the URL of my OP. If you look at that URL, you will see that it is a jpg, not a webm. However, if you click and drag that image from this very page to your desktop, it will drop it as a webm. You can then right-click the image in the browser, click Save image as, and it will only give you the option to save as jpg. This shows that you can save as a jpg or a webm, so I am not certain how DRM plays into this at all.

@Mattches

You’ll find this same behavior across all browsers.

It does not do this in Firefox. When I use Firefox to drag/drop the image in my OP to my desktop, I get a jpg, not a webm.

Finally, here is a LICEcap that reproduces the issue in my OP:

So, the tl;dr here is: I still don’t understand why Brave and Chrome exhibit this inconsistent behavior with regard to saving jpgs.

[sriram]

This is probably a Chromium behaviour. So all Chromium based browsers will have the same effect. This would require upstream fix(on Chromium). It would be based on the render engine so whatever fix is required it has to come from upstream.