How to Use AVIF Images in WordPress

MetaSlider is the leading slideshow plugin for WordPress, and so much of our work revolves around images. One reason why people love WordPress is that you can easily upload beautiful images to make your site look exciting.

WordPress officially allows you to upload PNG, JPG, and WebP images. Click here to see all the allowed file types in WordPress.

However, there’s one popular file format missing from this list: AVIF. This is a relatively new file format, and the WordPress community is working hard to add support. WordPress 6.5 will bring full support for AVIF images.

If you try to upload an AVIF image in WordPress before version 6.5, you get the message: “Sorry, you are not allowed to upload this file type”. That message is shown in this screenshot below.

After updating to WordPress 6.5, you will be able to successfully upload AVIF files. They will be stored in your WordPress media library alongside PNG and JPG files.

MetaSlider Slideshows and AVIF Images

Yes, MetaSlider slideshows do support AVIF images. You don’t need to add an extra plugin or make any changes. You can upload AVIF and add them safely to your slideshows, as in the image below.

However, I would recommend being careful about using AVIF images. Jon Henshaw reports that AVIF images don’t appear in Google search.

About AVIF Images

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format. It has that unusual name because it is based on the AV1 video codec. That codec was designed to be a royalty-free, efficient, and high-quality video compression standard.

Some key features and advantages of AVIF images include:

• Improved Compression Efficiency: AVIF typically offers better compression efficiency than other image formats, resulting in smaller file sizes for the same visual quality. This can lead to faster loading times for web pages and reduced bandwidth usage.
• High-Quality Images: Despite achieving smaller file sizes, AVIF maintains high image quality, often surpassing that of other formats at similar bitrates.
• Wide Color Gamut and High Dynamic Range (HDR) Support: AVIF supports a wide range of color depths, including deep color and HDR, making it suitable for a variety of content types, including photographs, graphics, and digital art.
• Alpha Channel Support: AVIF supports lossless alpha channel compression, allowing for high-quality transparency in images.
• Royalty-Free and Open Standard: AVIF is an open, royalty-free format developed by a consortium of industry leaders. This ensures widespread adoption and support across different platforms and applications without concerns about licensing fees or restrictions.
• Browser Support: Major web browsers have started to support AVIF images, allowing web developers to utilize its benefits for faster and more efficient image delivery.

Comparing AVIF Images to PNG, JPG and WebP Images

AVIF has many advantages over the other formats available in WordPress. The main downside is that AVIF is a relatively new format and may not be fully supported by all browsers yet. There are other file types, such as SVG images and HEIC images that are not officially supported in WordPress.

Conclusion: AVIF Images in WordPress

AVIF images are a great choice for your WordPress images. They load quickly and retain their high-quality display. You might also want to look at using WebP images in WordPress. However, while both WebP and AVIF offer advantages over older image formats, AVIF generally provides superior compression efficiency and image quality compared to WebP.