AVIF support

[timoschraa]

In the Umbraco documentation (https://docs.umbraco.com/sustainability-best-practices/frontend/image-optimisation) in the paragraph under Use the best File Format is written that "AVIF is less well supported than WebP so it's important to use a <picture> tag to ensure compatibility". But if you take a look at the numbers on https://caniuse.com/webp and https://caniuse.com/avif AVIF isn't that less well supported.

Because both formats are now well supported, will there be an initiative for AVIF support in Umbraco?

Hopefully opening up a discussion about using/implementing AVIF support in ImageSharp/Umbraco for rendering so all Umbraco instances can make use of this functionality. AVIF format is even more compressed compared to WEBP format which means less bandwidth is used. Would be a good addition to the current image rendering.

I know there is more or less a PR that does the trick but it has been open for a while.. Can we do something as Umbraco (community)?

[iOvergaard]

Great discussion! You're right that browser support for AVIF has caught up significantly since that documentation was written — it's worth updating that page too.

On the rendering side, Umbraco uses SixLabors ImageSharp as its image processing pipeline, and AVIF output is blocked on ImageSharp. They must add codec support. That's exactly the PR you linked. Until that merges and we pick up a release containing it, we can't add AVIF as an output format on our end.

Once ImageSharp ships AVIF support, wiring it up in Umbraco would be fairly straightforward. The most impactful thing the community can do right now is probably to add attention to that ImageSharp PR to help get it over the line. It's been sitting there for almost 2.5 years.

[timoschraa]

@iOvergaard is there something that Umbraco as company can do? Like schedule a call with the people from SixLabors and maybe schedule it on the Umbraco (development) roadmap so Umbraco can deliver e.g. resources for testing purposes? For Umbraco as a CMS I think it's also valuable/important that it is shipped with AVIF support because that is the next (and better) generation of image compression.

It would be a giant step in bandwidth reduction. Umbraco cares a lot about sustainability, so I think freeing up some resources and contact SixLabors could be a great opportunity (and not only because I think it's better). I think a lot of partners/companies are waiting for AVIF support and could create the mechanism themselves but would prefer to see it in the core of image rendering.

Is that something you can look into/discuss in-house? Let me know your thoughts! Thanks :)

[iOvergaard]

@timoschraa Thanks for the suggestion — and I get why it seems like a natural step for us to take.

To be transparent though: a 257-file, 260-commit PR in a highly specialised area of image codec implementation isn't something we're in a position to meaningfully drive forward. We don't own or maintain ImageSharp, we don't have the deep codec expertise that reviewing or testing something like this properly requires, and we simply don't have the bandwidth to take it on responsibly.

The best path forward is community participation on the SixLabors side — upvotes and, ideally, people with the relevant skills helping to move that PR along. Once it ships in a release we can consume, wiring it up in Umbraco will be the easy part.