CUR vs WebP Format Comparison
image/x-win-cursor
image/webp
A complete technical comparison of Windows Cursor and WebP Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Feature Support
| Feature | CUR | WebP |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | Yes |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | Yes |
| Progressive Loading | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| HDR Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| EXIF Metadata | ✕ No | Yes |
| ICC Color Profile | ✕ No | Yes |
image/x-win-cursor
.cur
None (DIB / BMP)Deflate (If PNG embedded)
image/webp
.webp
VP8VP8L
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | CUR | WebP |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✓ 1
|
✓ 32+
|
Firefox
|
✓ 1
|
✓ 65+
|
Safari
|
✓ 1.2
|
✓ 14+
|
Edge
|
✓ 12
|
✓ 18+
|
IE (Legacy)
|
✓
|
✕ |
CUR Strengths
- Natively supported by Windows for desktop cursor customization
- Widely supported by modern web browsers for custom CSS cursors
- Supports an exact hotspot coordinate, which standard image formats like PNG and JPEG lack
- Legacy format that is being gradually replaced by SVG and PNG for web implementations
- Does not support animation (animated cursors use the distinct .ani format)
- The MIME type is highly fragmented across systems (e.g., image/cursor, image/x-win-cursor, application/x-cursor)
WebP Strengths
- Superior lossy compression — 25–35% smaller than JPEG at equivalent quality
- Supports both animation and full alpha transparency
- Lossless mode available with smaller file sizes than PNG
- Slower encoding than JPEG, especially for lossless
- Not supported in Internet Explorer or very old browsers
When to choose which format
- Operating System Custom Cursors
- Custom Web Browser Mouse Pointers (via CSS)
- Desktop Application UI
- Websites
- Ecommerce
- Mobile Apps
- CMS Images
Convert & Edit Online
Free online web tools for CUR and WebP files.
Resize, scale, crop, and modify dimensions for any photo or graphic.
Clean EXIF, camera, lens, and location tags from your photos.
Convert modern web images to universal high-compatibility JPG.
Reduce image file sizes for faster web performance.
Convert WebP images to standard universal JPEG files in seconds.
Convert WebP to lossless PNG with full transparency preserved.
Convert raster WebP images into vector SVG graphics.
Generate multi-size Windows icon and favicon (.ico) files from WebP.
Export WebP images into printable PDF documents.