There’s this site I go to where I download pictures from. Recently many of them have started using the WEBP extension, which, as far as I’ve been able to determine, can save very large files with less memory use. The problem is that while they look just fine on the webpage, and they look fine when I open them with a web browser, and they look fine when I open them with a paint program, whenever I use the Photo Gallery, they’re darkened for some reason. Some of them look browner or less detailed.
Every other picture format I know of works just fine with Photo Gallery. As I usually browse through multiple pictures in the same file, using a browser to load them really isn’t a practical option.
Is there anyone who knows more about WEBP and why it’s doing this?
What is Photo Gallery? Is that an app you added, or something that came with your computer?
Webp is a relatively newer image format, and some versions of Windows needed a special codec pack to display them correctly. Perhaps it just needs an update? Check for any outstanding Windows or Microsoft updates, or updates to the Photo Gallery app.
If you’re not tied to that particular app, the free IrfanView should be able to view multiple files in a folder, and can display basically any image format in existence.
It might also be a transparency / alpha channel thing. Some webps can be partially transparent and certain older programs struggle to display them correctly. IrfanView should work with those too.
If you’re comfortable sharing some specific examples of the images or the URL they came from, along with some basic details of your computer (like what version of Windows and that Photo Gallery app), it’d help with the troubleshooting. Feel free to DM me if you prefer.
But otherwise hopefully IrfanView will do the trick.
Photo Gallery was the default picture-viewing application that came with my Windows 10-equipped computer, which is many years old at this point (by far the longest I’ve ever had any computer). Yeah, I know it’s totally uncool to stick with default applications, but webp (I can never remember what the proper capitalization is) is literally the first time in the life I’ve had any problem with Photo Gallery whatsoever.
Anyway, I downloaded IrfanView and a few codecs, and it completely solved the problem. Not that I have to say it at this point, but this board rocks.
