Search engine in the gallery gets an in-depth redesign. Piwigo 14 also comes with highly expected support for new image file types like HEIC (the default file type used for photos on iOS and Android phones, it will generate a JPEG file for display and keep the HEIC as original file), compatibility with PHP 8.2, new album editor and speed improvements.
For me, the best news was the support for WebP: vthe most “supported by web browsers” file type as a JPEG replacement. Piwigo will generate WebP files for multiple-size display. This is a big difference compared to other file types only supported “as input”. WebP is supported for import as well as for display. What’s interesting with WebP is that it can replace JPEG with higher quality for the same file weight, it can replace animated GIF for a much smaller weight and can also replace PNG with lossless quality and transparency.
PSD (Photoshop) and EPS: Piwigo will generate a JPEG or PNG for display and keep the PSD/EPS as the original file.
I know Piwigo still has a bit of a dated look and feel to it, but using the Bootstrap Darkroom theme does make it look quite a lot better. I’m also concerned about the community plugins as some really good ones are not being updated to keep pace with the Piwigo updates. So, what happens is that some excellent extra functionality falls by the wayside over time.
I’m still using Piwigo, mainly because it did an auto-import of my 11,000 photos and albums from Flickr. But I’m next going to look at Immich and see whether it is ready yet to replace Piwigo for me, or not.
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