Convert AI to WebP
This is the conversion for artwork whose destination is a web page and nowhere else. WebP keeps the transparency Illustrator work usually depends on and is a fraction of the size of the PNG you would otherwise reach for — at the cost of fixing, permanently, a resolution the source never had.
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Up to 50 MB. Deleted automatically after 30 minutes.
What it does
- Rendered at 150 dpi, not the default 72
- Transparency preserved
- Much smaller than the equivalent PNG
- No Illustrator and no Adobe account
How to use AI to WebP
- 1
Add the AI file
Drop it in. Modern Illustrator files are PDF underneath, which is why no Illustrator is needed to read one.
- 2
Rendered, then encoded
Rasterized at 150 dpi and encoded as WebP at quality 82, with the alpha channel carried through.
- 3
Put it on the page
Every browser released since 2020 reads WebP. Keep a PNG fallback only if you support older ones.
How it works
Ghostscript rasterizes the artwork at 150 dpi — the resolution is set before the file is read, because it is a read-time setting and does nothing afterwards — and the result is encoded as WebP at quality 82 with its alpha channel intact.
What you give up, stated plainly
Every other Illustrator conversion on this site is worth comparing against, and this one sits at a specific point on that scale.
/ai-to-pdf gives up nothing: the geometry is rewritten as geometry, and the result is sharp at any size forever. /ai-to-png gives up scalability but keeps every pixel exactly. This gives up scalability and encodes lossily, and in exchange produces the smallest file of the three by a wide margin.
That trade is right when the destination is a web page, where bytes are the constraint that actually costs you something, and wrong everywhere else. A landing page that loads a second faster is worth more than pixel-exactness nobody will inspect.
SVG is usually better, and this page will say so
For a logo, an icon, or a flat illustration going on a web page, SVG beats every raster format. It stays vector all the way into the browser, so it is sharp on a phone, on a 5K monitor, and at any zoom — and for simple artwork it is often smaller than the WebP would be.
This site does not offer ai-to-svg, and the reason is worth being honest about: the conversion available here would trace the artwork with potrace, which throws away the real Bézier paths and replaces them with an approximation of the rendered pixels. That is a worse file that looks like a feature. Illustrator's own "Save As SVG" does it properly, and if you have the software it is the better route.
WebP is the answer when you do not.
Keep the AI file
The WebP is one rendering, at one size, in a format that loses a little more each time it is saved. The Illustrator file is the artwork and can produce a fresh rendering at any size at any time.
Examples
A logo for a site header
A 200 by 150 point logo renders 417 by 313 pixels, with the background still transparent, in a few kilobytes.
An illustration for a landing page
The size advantage is largest here — a detailed illustration as a PNG can be several times the bytes for the same picture.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use SVG instead?
For a logo or an icon on a web page, very often yes — SVG stays vector all the way to the browser, so it is sharp on any screen at any zoom and is frequently smaller than any raster. This site does not offer ai-to-svg, because the conversion available here would TRACE the artwork with potrace, discarding the real paths for an approximation. Illustrator's own "Save As SVG" does it properly. Use WebP when you do not have Illustrator.
Why is the result a fixed size?
Because rasterizing is what makes it a WebP. The source has geometry measured in points, not pixels, and something must choose how many pixels each point becomes. 150 dpi is used, which turns a 200 by 150 point drawing into 417 by 313 — measured. The near-universal default of 72 dpi would make it 200 by 150, which is the reason vector conversions so often come back too small to use.
Is the transparency really kept?
Yes. WebP carries a full alpha channel and it is used here, so artwork drawn on nothing arrives on nothing and blends with whatever color your page uses. That is the main advantage over /ai-to-jpg, which has to composite onto white because JPEG has nowhere to store transparency.
Can I use this for print?
No, and no print shop will accept it. WebP is a web format: lossy by default here, RGB only, and unreadable by most print software. For anything going to a printer, /ai-to-pdf keeps the artwork as real vectors, which is what they want — it renders sharp at any size the press runs at rather than at one resolution chosen in advance.
Does my file leave my computer?
Yes. Rendering PostScript and PDF safely needs Ghostscript with its sandbox enabled, which runs on our server rather than in a browser. The upload and the result are both deleted within 30 minutes by a timer, and nothing is stored, indexed or kept against an account.