What AVIF actually costs
One image, five encodings, and the byte counts Hugo wrote.
2 minutes read
239 words
Hugo 0.165 encodes AVIF. Nothing to install: it is in the binary, alongside JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF and BMP.
{{ $img.Resize "900x avif q60" }}
The quality numbers do not mean the same thing between formats. AVIF at q80 aims far higher than JPEG at q80 and charges you for it, which is why the list below has AVIF three times.
Click one to see it full size, then step through with the arrows. The pictures do not move between steps, so any difference is a difference and not your eye relocating.
Source: flame.jpg, 1024×576, 152 KB. Every file above was written by Hugo at build time from that one image. Open them and step through with the arrows: the pictures do not move, so the differences stay where you left your eye.
The image is a flame fractal, which is a hard case: fine filaments over a dark ground, where a lossy encoder has nowhere to hide. A photograph of a face would flatter every format here.