boostorg / boostorg/gil

Add support for WebP format?

Open
#639 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
cat/feature ext/io status/need-help
Dominant language
C++
Stars
199
Forks
171
Avg merge
1d 14h
Merged PRs (30d)
10

Description

### Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

GIL does not support images in the [WebP format](https://developers.google.com/speed/webp). In my experience, this format is becoming increasingly more common as a replacement for JPEG and PNG image formats. So at least read support for that format would be really nice. :)

### Describe the solution you'd like

There should be an I/O extension which can read WebP images (and possibly write such images, too).
Easiest way would probably be to use the existing [libwebp library](https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/) to do the reading and writing. Encoding/decoding of such images in one go is possible via [libwebp's API](https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/api#simple_decoding_api).

### Questions

* Are there any intentions to add WebP support to Boost GIL?
* If yes: Is someone already working on such a feature? What is the best way to support the existing efforts?
* If no: What is the suggested alternative for handling WebP with Boost GIL? Would a pull requests that adds support for WebP be welcome?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reviewing Boost.GIL's existing I/O extensions and the libwebp Simple Decoding API linked in the issue. Determine how read support should fit the current extension patterns, then establish tests for loading WebP images; writing support is optional and should be clarified before implementation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
computer-vision
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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