David Degner

<p>Built by a <a href="https://www.daviddegner.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Boston photographer</a> for site owners who care about visual quality and full control. This plugin prioritizes <strong>image quality</strong> over everything else — no subscriptions, no external services.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Local Processing</strong> — All conversion happens on your server. No subscriptions or external API calls. Works great on a shared CPU with 2GB RAM.</li>
<li><strong>Quality First</strong> — Uses LANCZOS resizing, preserves ICC color profiles, and keeps EXIF/XMP/IPTC metadata intact.</li>
<li><strong>Fully Tunable</strong> — Control quality (0–100), speed (0–10), chroma subsampling (4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4), and bit depth (8/10/12-bit).</li>
<li><strong>Smart Fallback</strong> — Serves AVIF to supported browsers, JPEG to everyone else via picture elements.</li>
<li><strong>Automatic Conversion</strong> — Convert on upload or via daily scheduled background scans.</li>
<li><strong>LQIP Placeholders</strong> — Generate ThumbHash-based low-quality image placeholders for smooth loading.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How It Works</h3>
<p><strong>Front end:</strong> The plugin wraps your img tags in picture elements with an AVIF source. Browsers that support AVIF load the smaller, higher-quality file — others gracefully fall back to JPEG.</p>
<p><strong>Conversion:</strong> Uses ImageMagick CLI (fastest), Imagick PHP extension (high quality), or GD Library (fallback) to convert JPEGs to AVIF on upload or via background jobs.</p>
<p><strong>LQIP:</strong> Generates compact (~30 byte) ThumbHash placeholders that display instantly while images load.</p>
<h3>Server Setup</h3>
<p>The plugin supports three conversion engines, in order of preference:</p>
<h4>ImageMagick CLI (Fastest, Recommended)</h4>
<p>Uses the ImageMagick command-line binary directly:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>System binary:</strong> ImageMagick 7.x built with HEIF/AVIF support (via libheif)</li>
<li><strong>No PHP extension required</strong></li>
<li><strong>Benefits:</strong> Fastest performance, LANCZOS resizing, full metadata preservation (EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC)</li>
<li><strong>Typical paths:</strong> <code>/usr/bin/magick</code>, <code>/usr/local/bin/magick</code>, or Homebrew on macOS</li>
</ul>
<p>To verify AVIF support:</p>
<pre><code>magick -list format | grep -i avif
</code></pre>
<h4>Imagick PHP Extension (High Quality)</h4>
<p>Uses the PHP Imagick extension:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>PHP extension:</strong> imagick</li>
<li><strong>System libraries:</strong> ImageMagick built with HEIF/AVIF support (via libheif)</li>
<li><strong>Benefits:</strong> LANCZOS resizing, full metadata preservation (EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC), color profile handling</li>
</ul>
<p>To install on Ubuntu/Debian:</p>
<pre><code>apt install php-imagick imagemagick libheif-dev
</code></pre>
<h4>GD Library (Fallback)</h4>
<p>Uses PHP’s built-in GD library:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>PHP extension:</strong> gd built with AVIF support (provides imageavif on PHP 8.1+)</li>
<li><strong>Note:</strong> Some distro builds omit AVIF support; limited metadata preservation</li>
</ul>
<h4>MIME Type Configuration</h4>
<p>Ensure your web server is configured to serve .avif files as image/avif.</p>
<h4>Documentation</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php" rel="nofollow ugc">ImageMagick installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.php.net/imagick" rel="nofollow ugc">PHP Imagick installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.php.net/manual/en/image.installation.php" rel="nofollow ugc">PHP GD installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://imagemagick.org/script/formats.php" rel="nofollow ugc">ImageMagick format support</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Need help with setup?</h4>
<p>If you’re not sure what to install or upgrade, copy your <strong>Server Diagnostics</strong> from the plugin status/tools screen (or run <code>wp avif status --format=json</code>) and paste it into an LLM.</p>
<p>Example prompt:</p>
<pre><code>I need AVIF support for WordPress. Based on this diagnostics output, give me step-by-step commands to install or upgrade ImageMagick, libheif, and PHP Imagick on my server.
</code></pre>
<p>After applying changes, verify with:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif status
magick -list format | grep -i avif<h3>WP-CLI Commands</h3>
</code></pre>
<p>Manage AVIF conversions from the command line.</p>
<h4>Status</h4>
<p>Show system status and AVIF support diagnostics:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif status
wp avif status --format=json
</code></pre>
<h4>Convert</h4>
<p>Convert JPEG images to AVIF format:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif convert --all
wp avif convert 123
wp avif convert --all --dry-run
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code><attachment-id></code> — Specific attachment ID to convert</li>
<li><code>--all</code> — Convert all attachments missing AVIF versions</li>
<li><code>--dry-run</code> — Show what would be converted without actually converting</li>
</ul>
<h4>Statistics</h4>
<p>Show AVIF conversion statistics:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif stats
wp avif stats --format=json
</code></pre>
<h4>Logs</h4>
<p>View or clear conversion logs:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif logs
wp avif logs --limit=50
wp avif logs --clear
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>--clear</code> — Clear all logs</li>
<li><code>--limit=<number></code> — Number of logs to show (default: 20)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Delete</h4>
<p>Delete AVIF files for an attachment or all attachments:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif delete 123
wp avif delete --all --yes
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code><attachment-id></code> — Attachment ID to delete AVIF files for</li>
<li><code>--all</code> — Delete all AVIF files in the media library</li>
<li><code>--yes</code> — Skip confirmation prompt when using –all</li>
</ul>
<h4>LQIP Commands</h4>
<p>Manage LQIP (ThumbHash) placeholders:</p>
<pre><code>wp lqip stats
wp lqip generate --all --force
wp lqip generate 123
wp lqip delete --all --yes
</code></pre>
<p>For more information, visit <a href="https://wp-cli.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">wp-cli.org</a>.</p>
<h3>Contributing</h3>
<p>Contributions welcome! Please submit issues and pull requests on <a href="https://github.com/ddegner/avif-local-support" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.</p>
<h3>License</h3>
<p>GPL v2 or later — <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html" rel="nofollow ugc">View License</a></p>


AVIF Local Support

High-quality AVIF image conversion for WordPress — local, quality-first.

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