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Force Firefox to save downloaded files in their original formats.

  • 2 respostas
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  • Last reply by zeroknight

gcvsa
gcvsa
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It is absolutely unacceptable that Firefox does not offer the option of saving a file in its original file format. I well understand the advantages of WEBP and AVIF formats for bandwidth conservation, but the fact is that these files are not supported by many software packages, so I want the original file formats.

Setting "image.webp.enabled" to "false" breaks many websites, YouTube most prominently.

Being forced to download a potentially risky extension to the browser in order to do something the browser should support natively (and actually does, because it has to, even if it's disabled by the developers with no way for users to re-enable it) is not an acceptable solution, especially when that means the extension isn't actually saving the original file, be re-converting it back to the original format, which is most often potentially a triply lossy conversion. The original JPEG is a lossy conversion, the server converting it to WEBP on the fly can also be a lossy conversion, and then the extension reconverting it to JPEG is yet another lossy conversion. Just give me the original JPEG.

I'm fine with viewing WEBP images, but if I'm saving an image, I don't want WEBP, I want the original. Why is this issue being forced by the Firefox developers? What deal have they made with the Google devil that they are preventing users from having access to original files?

It can be extremely difficult to figure out what is the latest information on this subject, so I'd appreciate recommendations current to 2023-08 as to the best way to handle this problem.

It is absolutely unacceptable that Firefox does not offer the option of saving a file in its original file format. I well understand the advantages of WEBP and AVIF formats for bandwidth conservation, but the fact is that these files are not supported by many software packages, so I want the original file formats. Setting "image.webp.enabled" to "false" breaks many websites, YouTube most prominently. Being forced to download a potentially risky extension to the browser in order to do something the browser should support natively (and actually does, because it has to, even if it's disabled by the developers with no way for users to re-enable it) is not an acceptable solution, especially when that means the extension isn't actually saving the original file, be re-converting it back to the original format, which is most often potentially a triply lossy conversion. The original JPEG is a lossy conversion, the server converting it to WEBP on the fly can also be a lossy conversion, and then the extension reconverting it to JPEG is yet another lossy conversion. Just give me the original JPEG. I'm fine with viewing WEBP images, but if I'm saving an image, I don't want WEBP, I want the original. Why is this issue being forced by the Firefox developers? What deal have they made with the Google devil that they are preventing users from having access to original files? It can be extremely difficult to figure out what is the latest information on this subject, so I'd appreciate recommendations current to 2023-08 as to the best way to handle this problem.

All Replies (2)

jonzn4SUSE
jonzn4SUSE
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I see the same issue in Waterfox. see screenshot Reading some of the search results for WEBP is interesting. https://www.google.com/search?q=WEBP

Here is why it's being forced! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebP

jonzn4SUSE modificouno o

zeroknight
zeroknight
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It is entirely up to websites what image format and quality they want to provide. Many are using webp to save operating costs and only use a fallback for back compatibility. If the fallback became too popular, sites might be compelled to remove it and force webp which is the opposite of what you want.

Extensions are well suited to this task since they are unlikely to become so popular that they affect site owners.

Most major graphics software should support webp by now if you are using the latest versions.