Compiling the Utilities

If the precompiled utilities don't suit your needs, you can build the WebP utilities yourself.

Compiling on Windows with Visual C++

1. Download libwebp-1.6.0.tar.gz from the downloads list and extract its contents.

2. From the libwebp-1.6.0 directory, run:

    nmake /f Makefile.vc CFG=release-static RTLIBCFG=static OBJDIR=output 
   

   To see additional options, run:

    nmake /f Makefile.vc 
   

3. The directory output\release-static\x86\bin or output\release-static\x64\bin will contain the tools cwebp.exe and dwebp.exe depending on the platform being targeted. The directory output\release-static\(x86|x64)\lib will contain the libwebp static library.

Compiling on Unix-like Platforms

Preparing the Platform

Linux

1. Install the libjpeg , libpng , libtiff and libgif packages, needed to convert between JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF and WebP image formats.

   Package management varies by Linux distribution. On Ubuntu and Debian, the following command will install the needed packages:

    sudo  
   apt-get  
   install  
   libjpeg-dev  
   libpng-dev  
   libtiff-dev  
   libgif-dev 
   

2. Complete the installation ( see below ).

macOS

MacPorts is a convenient way to satisfy dependencies. If you already have MacPorts installed, go directly to Step 3. Otherwise, follow these steps:

1. Download MacPorts for your macOS version from the MacPorts downloads site . MacPorts requires the installation of Xcode .

2. Install MacPorts following the MacPorts directions .

3. Update MacPorts:

    sudo  
   port  
   selfupdate 
   

4. Install the JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF dependencies:

    sudo  
   port  
   install  
   jpeg  
   libpng  
   tiff  
   giflib 
   

5. Complete the installation ( see below ).

Cygwin

1. Download setup.exe from the Cygwin web page .

2. Run setup.exe and proceed through the installation.

3. At the Select Packagesscreen, add to the pre-selected packages the following:

   • libjpeg-devel , libpng-devel , libtiff-devel and libgif-devel

   • gcc , make and automake (for building packages)

4. Complete the installation ( see below ).

Building

1. Download libwebp-1.6.0.tar.gz from the downloads list .

2. Untar or unzip the package. This creates a directory named libwebp-1.6.0/ :

    tar  
   xvzf  
   libwebp-1.6.0.tar.gz 
   

3. Build WebP encoder cwebp and decoder dwebp :

   Go to the directory where libwebp-1.6.0/ was extracted to and run the following commands:

     cd 
     
   libwebp-1.6.0
   ./configure
   make
   sudo  
   make  
   install 
   

   This builds and installs the cwebp and dwebp command line tools, along with the libwebp libraries (dynamic and static).

   These tools are usually installed under /usr/local/bin/ by default. The local versions are built under the examples/ directory.

   The library will usually be installed under the /usr/local/lib/ directory. To avoid run-time errors, make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes this location. The C headers are typically installed under /usr/local/include/webp .

   To see additional options, run:

    ./configure  
   --help 
   

What Next?

Go to Using WebP for instructions on how to start converting your images.