A downloaded webp image from a website could not be opened

This particular server seems to be changing data based on browser being used. For Safari, it loads jpeg image, thus downloadable and, openable by preview. For Firefox & chrome, it loads WebP. Safari doesnt support that, neither WebM. Both are sister projects by Google.

There are multiple ways you can open a WebP via, listed on linked Wikipedia page above. Some of which, I find easy on Mac, are:

• Gimp
• WebPQuickLook as suggested in this answer
• Google web apps
• Other browsers like FireFox, Edge.
• Photoshop, with a plugin

This is how I did it:

wget  "https://trek.scene7.com/is/image/TrekBicycleProducts/Procaliber98SL_19_23166_A_Portrait?$responsive-pjpg$&wid=1920&hei=1440"

and rename it to add the extension .jpeg. It is openable by Preview, both with and without extension.

If you don't have wget, use curl available by default.

curl "https://trek.scene7.com/is/image/TrekBicycleProducts/Procaliber98SL_19_23166_A_Portrait?$responsive-pjpg$&wid=1920&hei=1440" >> ~/Downloads/name.jpeg

works just fine.

It's a WEBP image (developed by Google) and Preview doesn't natively support this file type. If you right click and select "View Image Info" you can get the image details (this one was done in Firefox)

There are a few ways you can view this image...

• WebP Viewer (free). Available on the App Store. It's a Quick Look plugin and supports printing. Supports Safari

• Browser Add-Ons:

  • Firefox: WebP Image Converter
  • Chrome: Built In tool

• Copy the image and paste it to another application then save it. I used OneNote and was able to save the image as a JPG. You can use other apps like Word, Pages, Notes, etc. and achieve the same results.