Google Pik, a new format for images as an alternative to .jpeg

Google is working on a new image format called Pik, as you can see on the official GitHub profile of the company. Based on the skinny documentation present, this is a new image lossy (thus loss of quality) image designed for the Internet.

At the time, we write we do not know other details and features of the format, nor how much this adds to the many alternatives already present on the square.

In addition to the famous and evergreen JPEG, also characterized by being born to meet the needs of the web. WebP had been announced as a more efficient and effective lossy image format than the compression algorithms used and then spread on the Internet pages. To date, WebP does not have a great diffusion, even though it has been embraced by several sites around the world.

We still do not know what Pik will be different from WebP, except that a CPU compatible with AVX2 and FMA, such as Intel with Haswell architecture and later, will be required for processing the format. Moreover, Pik is not an ” official Google product “, as is explicitly stated on the site. It is developed by the company, as it does show the files published and present on GitHub, but Google probably will not offer any support or warranty.

Currently, Google Pik seems to be a base for experimenting in the field, and only the encoder and decoder are present on GitHub to handle the compression algorithm. In the description of the project, it is also stated that ” it is still embryonic “, along with the excuse of ” not using it for any reason “. In short, little or nothing is known about Google Pik, with JPEG, GIF and WebP, which at this time can breathe a sigh of relief.