Introduction
Every online store shows many images - product photos, brand images, etc. But with all these images come challenges and opportunities for optimization. Image optimization is a fascinating thing. You can do a lot to optimize them, for example, change the quality of the images, reduce the color depth and remove metadata. It is best to switch to a higher compressing image format. New image formats are under scrutiny. But either they are not helpful or they are not yet adopted sufficiently. But AVIF was founded by all major technology and browser companies worldwide , including Google, Apple, and Mozilla.
Native Magento solution
Installing AVIF support on Magento CMS has been difficult for some time. Fortunately, some developers have been working hard on the problem and found solutions. Both solutions offer local and automatic conversion. Please note that this post is not sponsored. As there is no free demo of Magento, we could not test them individually on our computers. However, several sources confirm that both plugins work perfectly, so we would encourage you to try them out if you like. Also, according to a Github pull request, Magento will add native support for AVIF headers shortly.
Ultimate Image Optimizer extension
Ultimate Image Optimizer Extension for Magento 2was the first extension to support AVIF images for Magento 2 stores. In addition to local and automatic AVIF conversion, WebP images and original images are available as a fallback. In addition, developers have added lazy loading and retinal support options, giving Magento 2 stores a complete image optimization solution. Their customers benefit from improved page loading times and high-quality images.
magento2-next-gen-images
Jisse Reitsma, the founder of Yireo, provides a Magento module that does exactly the same. He describes it as a module to add support for NextGen images. Those who love Magento and image optimization have seen Yireo's work before, as he maintains the Yireo_Webp2 module, which replaces JPG and PNG images with smaller WebP images. Interestingly, he is excited to support other next-generation image formats such as JPEG XL and WebP2 in the future. This enthusiasm has also led him to merge his existing WebP module with the theoretical AVIF module into the new Next-Gen image module. Soon, the extensions could include a CLI to generate these images in advance rather than generating them in no time at all. I suggest visiting his module page on Packagist or his blog post , where he gives more information about the current state of the plugin, as well as errors he sees when activating AVIF modules on the server, such as not optimizing the view.xml. Have you also created an AVIF module / extension? Let us know so we can add it to the list.
Update: Cloudimage.io
Cloudimage.io offers a Magento 2 Plugin for Responsive Images in next-gen formats. Utilizing automation to deliver your images in the optimal format (WebP, AVIF, optimized JPEG), resolution, and quality will make your images look high-quality and load rapidly at any bandwidth. Using the Lazy and Progressive loading features, Cloudimage also detects the size of the container on your visitors and sends the appropriate sized images to them. Cloudimage is a CDN that offers a free plan with fair prices as soon as your demand for image transformation grows.