Introducing Handsum: A New Fixed-Size LQIP Image Format for Fast Web Loading
Handsum: An LQIP Image File Format
I present Handsum, a new custom file format for Low Quality Image Placeholders designed to load instantly. Unlike variable-sized formats, Handsum guarantees fixed file sizes ranging from 48 to 147 bytes, making it ideal for database storage and embedded apps. Based on the Discrete Cosine Transform, it offers better visual clarity than Thumbhash at similar sizes while simplifying the complexity of JPEG encoding.
If you told me to guess the famous image based on the thumbnail, then for Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, I'd say that's plausible for Handsum but implausible for Thumbhash.
- jszymborski
Does anyone else also feel... uneasy, bothered, it's hard to express the feeling, by LQIPs?
Primarily those that are blurry, my brain wants to figure out what the picture is, even before I recognize it's an LQIP, which is straining and frustrating because... well it's blurry or super degraded.
Is it really better than just having a placeholder square with maybe the most prominent color? Or just a good old progressive image?
- gforce_de
interesting!
147 bytes for 128x128 pixels are ~0.096 bpp (bits/pixel).
Everything above 153x153 pixels is too small (!) to count as LQIP (lighthouse).
The "normal" way would be to use a 0.05+ bpp WEBP-image as LQIP,
which has ~600 bytes,
but looks MUCH better and is widely supported:
https://show.quicky.club/results/cb/1f/a5/ddbacee070083ac5f7...
$ echo "(8*147)/(154*154)" | bc -l
.04958677685950413223
@dmit - please check your HTML (w3c validator is unhappy):
https://nigeltao.github.io/blog/2026/wasm-handsum-example/
This is just invalid: '... width="128px" height="128px" ...'*
- ape4
It would be nice if the low quality image also provided a headstart for the full quality image.