WebKit#WebKit2

The code that would become WebKit began in 1998 as the KDE HTML (KHTML) layout engine and KDE JavaScript (KJS) engine. The WebKit project was started within Apple by Lisa Melton{{cite web |title=Lisa Melton |url=https://lisamelton.net/ |website=Lisa Melton .net |access-date=17 December 2024 |date=2 February 2024}} on June 25, 2001,{{cite web|last=Melton|first=Don |title=Attention Internets! WebKit is not 10 years old today. That happened on June 25. I know the date because that's when I started the project.|url=https://www.twitter.com/donmelton/status/106603038575296512|work=Twitter|access-date=October 13, 2011|date=August 25, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420124207/https://twitter.com/donmelton/status/106603038575296512 |archive-date= Apr 20, 2021 }}{{cite news |last1=Henry |first1=Charlotte |title=Happy 20th Birthday, Safari and Webkit! |url=https://www.macobserver.com/news/happy-20th-birthday-safari-and-webkit/ |access-date=12 August 2023 |work=The Mac Observer |date=25 June 2021}} as a fork of KHTML and KJS. Melton explained in an e-mail to KDE developers that KHTML and KJS allowed easier development than other available technologies by virtue of being small (fewer than 140,000 lines of code), cleanly designed and standards-compliant. KHTML and KJS were ported to macOS with the help of an adapter library and renamed WebCore and JavaScriptCore. JavaScriptCore was announced in an e-mail to a KDE mailing list in June 2002, alongside the first release of Apple's changes.{{cite mailing list |url=http://www.opendarwin.org/pipermail/kde-darwin/2002-June/000034.html |title=JavaScriptCore, Apple's JavaScript framework based on KJS |mailing-list=kde-darwin |last=Stachowiak |first=Maciej |author-link=Maciej Stachowiak |date=June 13, 2002 |access-date=August 21, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310215550/http://www.opendarwin.org/pipermail/kde-darwin/2002-June/000034.html |archive-date=March 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}

According to Apple, some changes which called for different development tactics involved macOS-specific features that are absent in KDE's KHTML, such as Objective-C, KWQ (pronounced "quack") an implementation of the subset of Qt required to make KHTML work on macOS written in Objective C++, and macOS calls.{{cite web |url=http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303184216/http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1006 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=March 3, 2006 |title=Safari and KHTML again |publisher=kdedevelopers.org |date=April 30, 2005 |access-date=February 20, 2010}}

The exchange of code between WebCore and KHTML became increasingly difficult as the code base diverged because both projects had different approaches in coding and code sharing.{{cite web |url= http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1001 |title= So, when will KHTML merge all the WebCore changes? |publisher= kdedevelopers.org |access-date= February 20, 2010 |url-status= usurped |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100529065425/http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1001 |archive-date= May 29, 2010 |df= mdy-all }} At one point KHTML developers said they were unlikely to accept Apple's changes and claimed the relationship between the two groups was a "bitter failure".{{cite web|url= https://blogs.kde.org/2005/04/29/bitter-failure-named-safari-and-khtml|title= The bitter failure named 'safari and khtml'|date= April 29, 2005|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150415005639/https://blogs.kde.org/2005/04/29/bitter-failure-named-safari-and-khtml|archive-date= April 15, 2015|df= mdy-all}} They claimed Apple submitted their changes in large patches containing multiple changes with inadequate documentation, often in relation to future additions to the codebase. Thus, these patches were difficult for the KDE developers to integrate back into KHTML.{{cite web|url= http://news.cnet.com/Open-source-divorce-for-Apples-Safari/2100-1032_3-5703819.html|title= Open-source divorce for Apple's Safari?|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090707214349/http://news.cnet.com/Open-source-divorce-for-Apples-Safari/2100-1032_3-5703819.html|archive-date= July 7, 2009|df= mdy-all}} Also, Apple had demanded that developers sign non-disclosure agreements before looking at Apple's source code and even then they were unable to access Apple's bug database.{{cite web|url= http://lists.apple.com/archives/Webcore-dev/2005/Jun/msg00009.html|title= WebCore open source changes|access-date= May 14, 2016|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160527125414/http://lists.apple.com/archives/Webcore-dev/2005/Jun/msg00009.html|archive-date= May 27, 2016|df= mdy-all}}

During the publicized "divorce" period, KDE developer Kurt Pfeifle (pipitas) posted an article claiming KHTML developers had managed to backport many (but not all) Safari improvements from WebCore to KHTML, and they always appreciated the improvements coming from Apple and still do so. The article also noted Apple had begun to contact KHTML developers about discussing how to improve the mutual relationship and ways of future cooperation.{{cite web|url= http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1049|title= WebCore – KHTML – Firefox: Know your facts!|url-status= usurped|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090210230809/http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1049|archive-date= February 10, 2009}} In fact, the KDE project was able to incorporate some of these changes to improve KHTML's rendering speed and add features, including compliance with the Acid2 rendering test.{{cite web|url= https://blogs.kde.org/node/1129|title= Konqueror now passes Acid2|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170621121118/https://blogs.kde.org/node/1129|archive-date= June 21, 2017|df= mdy-all}}

Following the appearance of a story of the fork in the news, Apple released the source code of the WebKit fork in a public revision-control repository.{{cite news |url= http://dot.kde.org/2005/06/07/apple-opens-webkit-cvs-and-bug-database |title= Apple Opens WebKit CVS and Bug Database |last= Molkentin |first= Daniel |date= June 7, 2005 |work= KDE News |access-date= January 16, 2007 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090715100234/http://dot.kde.org/2005/06/07/apple-opens-webkit-cvs-and-bug-database |archive-date= July 15, 2009 |df= mdy-all }}

The WebKit team had also reversed many Apple-specific changes in the original WebKit code base and implemented platform-specific abstraction layers to make committing the core rendering code to other platforms significantly easier.{{cite web|url= https://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/06/12/ars-at-wwdc-interview-with-lars-knoll-creator-of-khtml|title= Ars at WWDC: Interview with Lars Knoll, creator of KHTML|date= June 12, 2007|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080531052913/http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/06/12/ars-at-wwdc-interview-with-lars-knoll-creator-of-khtml|archive-date= May 31, 2008|df= mdy-all}}

In July 2007, Ars Technica reported that the KDE team would move from KHTML to WebKit.{{cite web |url= https://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/07/23/the-unforking-of-kdes-khtml-and-webkit |title= The unforking of KDE's KHTML and WebKit |access-date= July 30, 2007 |last= Unrau |first= Troy |date= July 23, 2007 |publisher= Ars Technica |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070930075415/http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/07/23/the-unforking-of-kdes-khtml-and-webkit |archive-date= September 30, 2007 |df= mdy-all }} Instead, after several years of integration, KDE Development Platform version 4.5.0 was released in August 2010 with support for both WebKit and KHTML, and development of KHTML continued until 2016 before it was officially discontinued in 2023.

{{cite web

|url = http://kde.org/announcements/4.5/platform.php

|title = KDE Development Platform 4.5.0 gains performance, stability, new high-speed cache and support for WebKit

|url-status = live

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110314205743/http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.5/platform.php

|archive-date = March 14, 2011

|df = mdy-all

}}

{{cite web |title=KHTML repository |quote=Removed for KF6, the 'kf5' branch contains the last maintained state. |url=https://github.com/KDE/khtml/tree/6d89b39ddb93aa5b655508c0b5295f3f4db626b8 |website=GitHub |access-date=5 May 2023}}

On June 7, 2005, Safari developer Dave Hyatt announced on his weblog that Apple was open-sourcing WebKit (formerly, only WebCore and JavaScriptCore were open source) and opening up access to WebKit's revision control tree and the issue tracker.

In mid-December 2005, support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) was merged into the standard build.{{cite web|url=http://dot.kde.org/1121021917/|title=Next Generation KDE Technologies Ported to WebCore|date=July 10, 2005|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013150411/http://dot.kde.org/1121021917/|archive-date=October 13, 2007|df=mdy-all}}

WebKit's JavaScriptCore and WebCore components are available under the GNU Lesser General Public License, while the rest of WebKit is available under the BSD 2-Clause license.

{{Update|section|date=July 2015}}

Beginning in early 2007, the development team began to implement Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) extensions, including animation, transitions and both 2D and 3D transforms;{{cite news|url=https://webkit.org/blog/130/css-transforms/|title=CSS Transforms|newspaper=Webkit |date=October 26, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113134857/https://webkit.org/blog/130/css-transforms/|archive-date=January 13, 2017|df=mdy-all}} such extensions were released as working drafts to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2009 for standardization.{{cite web|url=http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-animations/|title=CSS3 Animations|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221121910/http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-animations/|archive-date=February 21, 2009|df=mdy-all}}

In November 2007, the project announced that it had added support for media features of the HTML5 draft specification, allowing embedded video to be natively rendered and script-controlled in WebKit.{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/blog/140/html5-media-support/|title=HTML5 Media Support|last=Koivisto|first=Antti|work=Surfin' Safari blog|date=November 12, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113134814/https://webkit.org/blog/140/html5-media-support/|archive-date=January 13, 2017|df=mdy-all}}

On June 2, 2008, the WebKit project announced they rewrote JavaScriptCore as "SquirrelFish", a bytecode interpreter.{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/|title=Announcing SquirrelFish|date=June 2, 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127124319/https://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/|archive-date=January 27, 2017|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/SquirrelFish|title=SquirrelFish project}} The project evolved into SquirrelFish Extreme (abbreviated SFX), announced on September 18, 2008, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code, eliminating the need for a bytecode interpreter and thus speeding up JavaScript execution.{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/|title=Introducing SquirrelFish Extreme|date=September 18, 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126112934/https://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/|archive-date=November 26, 2016|df=mdy-all}} Initially, the only supported processor architecture for SFX was the x86, but at the end of January 2009, SFX was enabled for macOS on x86-64 as it passes all tests on that platform.{{cite web|url=https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/40439 |title=Changeset 40439 – WebKit |publisher=Trac.webkit.org |date=January 30, 2009 |access-date=December 27, 2010}}

On April 8, 2010, a project named WebKit2 was announced to redesign WebKit. Its goal was to abstract the components that provide web rendering cleanly from their surrounding interface or application shell, creating a situation where, "web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process from the application UI". This abstraction was intended to make reuse a more straightforward process for WebKit2 than for WebKit. WebKit2 had "an incompatible API change from the original WebKit", which motivated its name change.{{cite web|url=https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/WebKit2|title=WebKit2 wiki|publisher=Webkit.org|access-date=August 3, 2012}}

The WebKit2 targets were set to Linux, macOS, Windows, GTK, and MeeGo-Harmattan.{{cite web |url=https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2010-April/012235.html |title=Announcing WebKit2 |date=April 8, 2010 |publisher=Webkit.org |access-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110423042000/https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2010-April/012235.html |archive-date=April 23, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}{{cite web|url=http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/06/21/introducing-the-nokia-n9-all-it-takes-is-a-swipe/|title=Introducing the Nokia N9: all it takes is a swipe! |Nokia Conversations – The official Nokia Blog|publisher=Nokia Corporation|access-date=June 21, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624125835/http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/06/21/introducing-the-nokia-n9-all-it-takes-is-a-swipe|archive-date=June 24, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} Safari for macOS switched to the new API with version 5.1.{{cite web|url=https://trac.webkit.org/browser/releases/Apple/Safari%205.1/WebKit2?rev=91373| title=Source code repository for public parts of Safari 5.1|publisher=The WebKit Open Source Project| access-date=July 20, 2011}} Safari for iOS switched to WebKit2 with iOS 8.{{cite web|title=WWDC 2014 Session 206 - Introducing the Modern WebKit API - ASCIIwwdc|url=http://asciiwwdc.com/2014/sessions/206|access-date=December 13, 2014|archive-date=December 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213032037/http://asciiwwdc.com/2014/sessions/206|url-status=dead}}

The original WebKit API has been renamed WebKitLegacy API.{{cite web|url=https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132399 | title=132399 – Move the legacy WebKit API into WebKitLegacy.framework and move it inside WebKit.framework|publisher=Webkit.org}} WebKit2 API has been renamed just plain WebKit API.{{cite web|url=https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2017-July/029257.html|title=Renaming Directories and Project Files to Match Framework Names|date=July 10, 2017 |publisher=Webkit.org}}

File:Usage share of web browsers (Source StatCounter).svg according to StatCounter]]

WebKit is used as the rendering engine within Safari and was used by Google's Chrome web browser on Windows, macOS, and Android (before version 4.4 KitKat). Chrome used only WebCore, and included its own JavaScript engine named V8 and a multiprocess system. Chrome for iOS continues to use WebKit because Apple requires that web browsers on that platform must do so.{{cite web|url=https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#software-requirements|title=App Store Review Guidelines}} Other applications on macOS and iOS make use of WebKit, such as Apple's e-mail client Mail, App Store, and the 2008 version of Microsoft's Entourage personal information manager, both of which make use of WebKit to render HTML content.

New web browsers have been built around WebKit such as the S60 browser{{cite web|url=http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/|title=Nokia S60 Webkit Browser|publisher=Nokia|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051206034449/http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/|archive-date=December 6, 2005|df=mdy-all}} on Symbian mobile phones, BlackBerry Browser (ver 6.0+), Midori, Chrome browser,{{cite web|url=http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html|title=Google Chrome, Google's Browser Project|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080902065842/http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html|archive-date=September 2, 2008|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/|title=Comic describing the Google Chrome Project|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080903142023/http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/|archive-date=September 3, 2008|df=mdy-all}} the Android Web browsers before version 4.4 KitKat, and the browser used in PlayStation 3 system software from version 4.10.{{cite web |url=http://d.hatena.ne.jp/amatanoyo/20120208/1328681210 |title=PS3、ファームウェアv4.10からWebKitへ。 - あまたの何かしら。 |publisher=D.hatena.ne.jp |date=February 8, 2012 |access-date=January 13, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014094455/http://d.hatena.ne.jp/amatanoyo/20120208/1328681210 |archive-date=October 14, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} KDE's Rekonq web browser and Plasma Workspaces also use it as the native web rendering engine. WebKit has been adopted as the rendering engine in OmniWeb, iCab and Web (formerly named Epiphany) and Sleipnir, replacing their original rendering engines. GNOME's Web supported both Gecko and WebKit for some time, but the team decided that Gecko's release cycle and future development plans would make it too cumbersome to continue supporting it.{{cite web|url=http://mail.gnome.org/archives/epiphany-list/2008-April/msg00000.html|title=Epiphany Mailing list – Announcement: The Future of Epiphany|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214042734/http://mail.gnome.org/archives/epiphany-list/2008-April/msg00000.html|archive-date=February 14, 2012|df=mdy-all}} webOS uses WebKit as the basis of its application runtime.{{cite magazine |last=Chen |first=Brian X. |url=https://www.wired.com/2011/02/hp-web-os-tablet |title=HP Launches WebOS-Powered Tablet, Phones | Gadget Lab |magazine=Wired |access-date=January 13, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410211728/http://www.wired.com/2011/02/hp-web-os-tablet |archive-date=April 10, 2014 |df=mdy-all }} WebKit is used to render HTML and run JavaScript in the Adobe Integrated Runtime application platform. In Adobe Creative Suite CS5, WebKit is used to render some parts of the user interface. As of the first half of 2010, an analyst estimated the cumulative number of mobile handsets shipped with a WebKit-based browser at 350 million.{{cite web|title=100 Million Club (H1 2010 update)|url=http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2010/10/smart-feature-phones-the-unbalanced-equation-100-million-club-series/|publisher=VisionMobile|access-date=March 1, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301192936/http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2010/10/smart-feature-phones-the-unbalanced-equation-100-million-club-series/|archive-date=March 1, 2011|df=mdy-all}} By mid-April 2015, WebKit browser market share was 50.3%.{{cite web|url=http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201504-201504-bar/|title=StatCounter|publisher=StatCounter|access-date=April 14, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120526/http://gs.statcounter.com/%23mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201012-201111-bar#browser-ww-monthly-201504-201504-bar/|archive-date=May 26, 2012|df=mdy-all}}

The week after Hyatt announced WebKit's open-sourcing, Nokia announced that it had ported WebKit to the Symbian operating system and was developing a browser based on WebKit for mobile phones running S60. Named Web Browser for S60, it was used on Nokia, Samsung, LG, and other Symbian S60 mobile phones. Apple has also ported WebKit to iOS to run on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, where it is used to render content in the device's web browser and e-mail software.{{cite web |url=https://webkit.org/blog/87/safari-on-the-iphone/ |title=The Obligatory iPhone Post |last=Stachowiak |first=Maciej |date=January 10, 2007 |work=Surfin' Safari weblog |access-date=January 24, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219013741/http://webkit.org/blog/87/safari-on-the-iphone/ |archive-date=February 19, 2008 |df=mdy-all }} The Android mobile phone platform used WebKit (and later versions its Blink fork) as the basis of its web browser{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/blog/142/android-uses-webkit/|title=Android Uses WebKit|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113134900/https://webkit.org/blog/142/android-uses-webkit/|archive-date=January 13, 2017|df=mdy-all|access-date=January 12, 2017}}{{Cite news|url=https://webkit.org/blog/143/webkit-in-the-news/|title=WebKit in the News|date=2007-11-13|work=WebKit|access-date=2018-11-17}}{{Cite web|url=https://gigaom.com/2007/11/13/webkit/|title=The Amazing Rise of WebKit Mobile|date=2007-11-13|website=gigaom.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-17}} and the Palm Pre, announced January 2009, has an interface based on WebKit.{{cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/palm-pre-in-depth-impressions-video-and-huge-hands-on-gallery/|title=Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery|date=January 9, 2009 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113134056/https://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/palm-pre-in-depth-impressions-video-and-huge-hands-on-gallery/|archive-date=January 13, 2017|df=mdy-all}} The Amazon Kindle 3 includes an experimental WebKit based browser.{{cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/new-amazon-kindle-announced-139-wifi-only-version-and-189-3g/|title=New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK|last=Topolsky|first=Joshua|date=July 28, 2010 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113134059/https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/new-amazon-kindle-announced-139-wifi-only-version-and-189-3g/|archive-date=January 13, 2017|df=mdy-all}}

In June 2007, Apple announced that WebKit had been ported to Microsoft Windows as part of Safari. Although Safari for Windows was silently discontinued{{cite web|title=Safari 6 available for Mountain Lion and Lion, but not Windows|author=Lex Friedman|date=July 26, 2012|website=macworld.com|publisher=International Data Group|language=en|url-status=live|url=https://www.macworld.com/article/218624/safari-6-available-for-mountain-lion-and-lion-but-not-windows.html|access-date=August 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808110011/https://www.macworld.com/article/218624/safari-6-available-for-mountain-lion-and-lion-but-not-windows.html|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}} by the company, WebKit's ports to Microsoft's operating system are still actively maintained.{{cite web|title=Buildbot: builder Apple-Win-10-Debug-Build|publisher=Apple, Inc.|website=build.webkit.org|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=August 8, 2021|url=https://build.webkit.org/#/builders/56|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210808113400/https://build.webkit.org/%23/builders/56|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|title=Buildbot: builder WinCairo-64-bit-WKL-Release-Build|publisher=Apple, Inc.|website=build.webkit.org|language=en|url-status=live|url=https://build.webkit.org/#/builders/27|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210808112550/https://build.webkit.org/%23/builders/27|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all|access-date=August 8, 2021}} The Windows port uses Apple's proprietary libraries to function and is used for iCloud{{cite web|title=About the security content of iCloud for Windows 12.3 - Apple Support|publisher=Apple, Inc.|website=support.apple.com|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=August 8, 2021|url=https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212321|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808112027/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212321|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}} and iTunes{{cite web|title=About the security content of iTunes 12.11.3 for Windows - Apple Support|publisher=Apple, Inc.|website=support.apple.com|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=August 8, 2021|url=https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212319|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808112513/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212319|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}} for Windows, whereas the "WinCairo" port is a fully open-source and redistributable port.{{cite web|title=BuildingCairoOnWindows – WebKit|date=June 8, 2021|url=https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/BuildingCairoOnWindows|website=trac.webkit.org|publisher=Apple, Inc.|access-date=August 8, 2021|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808103951/https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/BuildingCairoOnWindows|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|title=GitHub - WebKitForWindows/WebKitRequirements: Build scripts for the requirements of the WinCairo port of WebKit|publisher=Apple, Inc.|website=github.com|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=August 8, 2021|url=https://github.com/WebKitForWindows/WebKitRequirements|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808113405/https://github.com/WebKitForWindows/WebKitRequirements|archive-date=August 8, 2021|df=mdy-all}}

File:GNOME Web 47 - gnome.org.png is a web browser on Linux that uses WebKitGTK.]]

WebKit has also been ported to several toolkits that support multiple platforms, such as the GTK toolkit for Linux, under the name WebKitGTK which is used by Eolie,{{Cite web|url=https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/eolie|title=World / Eolie}} GNOME Web,{{cite web|url=https://webkitgtk.org/|title=WebKitGTK+ project website|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130054419/https://webkitgtk.org/|archive-date=January 30, 2017|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.atoker.com/blog/2007/06/12/webkitgtk-is-coming/|title=Alp Toker – WebKit/Gtk+ is coming|date=June 12, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080325050544/http://www.atoker.com/blog/2007/06/12/webkitgtk-is-coming/|archive-date=March 25, 2008|df=mdy-all}} Adobe Integrated Runtime, Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), and the Clutter toolkit.{{cite web|url=https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/clutter|title=WebKitClutter project website}} Qt Software included a WebKit port in the Qt 4.4 release as a module called QtWebKit{{cite web|url=http://www.qtsoftware.com/products/library/modular-class-library#info_webkit |title=QT WebKit |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803123246/http://www.qtsoftware.com/products/library/modular-class-library |archive-date=August 3, 2009}} (since superseded by Qt WebEngine, which uses Blink instead). The Iris Browser on Qt also used WebKit. The Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) port – EWebKit – was developed (by Samsung and ProFusion{{cite web|url=http://profusion.mobi |title=ProFusion | Home |publisher=Profusion.mobi |access-date=January 13, 2013}}) focusing the embedded and mobile systems, for use as stand alone browser, widgets-gadgets, rich text viewer and composer.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} The Clutter port is developed by Collabora and sponsored by Robert Bosch GmbH.

There was also a project synchronized with WebKit (sponsored by Pleyo){{cite web|url=http://www.pleyo.org|title=pleyo|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080325144513/http://www.pleyo.org/|archive-date=March 25, 2008|df=mdy-all}} called Origyn Web Browser, which provided a meta-port to an abstract platform with the aim of making porting to embedded or lightweight systems quicker and easier.{{cite web|url=http://www.sand-labs.org/owb|title=See OWB forge|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509022705/http://www.sand-labs.org/owb/|archive-date=May 9, 2008|df=mdy-all}} This port is used for embedded devices such as set-top boxes, PMP and it has been ported into AmigaOS,{{cite web|url=http://strohmayer.org/|title=AmigaOS OWB official page}}{{cite web |url=http://amigaweb.net/index.php?function=view_news&id=962 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502200402/http://www.amigaweb.net/index.php?function=view_news&id=962 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 2, 2008 |title=Amiga – Powering through, dead or alive! |publisher=amigaweb.net |access-date=June 2, 2010 }} AROS{{cite web|url=http://sszymczy.rootnode.net/index.php?menu=projects&submenu=owb|title=AROS OWB developer page|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304120818/http://sszymczy.rootnode.net/index.php?menu=projects&submenu=owb|archive-date=March 4, 2009|df=mdy-all}} and MorphOS. MorphOS version 1.7 is the first version of Origyn Web Browser (OWB) supporting HTML5 media tags.{{cite web |title=Origyn Web Browser for MorphOS |url=http://fabportnawak.free.fr/owb/ |publisher=Fabian Coeurjoly |access-date=January 4, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317031009/http://fabportnawak.free.fr/owb/ |archive-date=March 17, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}{{cite web |title=Origyn Web Browser 1.7 Supports HTML5 Media, More |url=http://www.osnews.com/story/22971/Origyn_Web_Browser_1_7_Supports_HTML5_Media_More |publisher=OSNews |last=Holwerda |first=Thom |date=March 8, 2010 |access-date=March 8, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100312050728/http://www.osnews.com/story/22971/Origyn_Web_Browser_1_7_Supports_HTML5_Media_More |archive-date=March 12, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}

Web Platform for Embedded (WPE) is a WebKit port designed for embedded applications; it further improves the architecture by splitting the basic rendering functional blocks into a general-purpose routines library (libwpe), platform backends, and engine itself (called WPE WebKit).

The GTK port, albeit self-contained, can be built to use these base libraries instead of its internal platform support implementation. The WPE port is currently maintained by Igalia.

On April 3, 2013, Google announced that it would produce a fork of WebKit's WebCore component, to be named Blink. Chrome's developers decided on the fork to allow greater freedom in implementing WebCore's features in the browser without causing conflicts upstream, and to allow simplifying its codebase by removing code for WebCore components unused by Chrome. In relation to Opera Software's announcement earlier in the year that it would switch to WebKit by means of the Chromium codebase, it was confirmed that the Opera web browser would also switch to Blink.{{cite web|title=Google going its own way, forking WebKit rendering engine|date=April 3, 2013|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/google-going-its-own-way-forking-webkit-rendering-engine/|publisher=Ars Technica|access-date=April 4, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404014119/http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/google-going-its-own-way-forking-webkit-rendering-engine/|archive-date=April 4, 2013|df=mdy-all}} Following the announcement, WebKit developers began discussions on removing Chrome-specific code from the engine to streamline its codebase.{{cite web|title=WebKit developers planning Chromium extraction|url=http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/WebKit-developers-planning-Chromium-extraction-1835224.html|publisher=The H|access-date=April 9, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407033029/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/WebKit-developers-planning-Chromium-extraction-1835224.html|archive-date=April 7, 2013|df=mdy-all}} WebKit no longer has any Chrome specific code (e.g., buildsystem, V8 JavaScript engine hooks, platform code, etc.).{{Citation needed|date=January 2024|reason=provide a link to release notes, official blog post or similar confirming this}}

WebCore is a layout, rendering, and Document Object Model (DOM) library for HTML and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), developed by the WebKit project. Its full source code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The WebKit framework wraps WebCore and JavaScriptCore, providing an Objective-C application programming interface to the C++-based WebCore rendering engine and JavaScriptCore script engine, allowing it to be easily referenced by applications based on the Cocoa API; later versions also include a cross-platform C++ platform abstraction, and various ports provide more APIs.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

WebKit passes the Acid2 and Acid3 tests, with pixel-perfect rendering and no timing or smoothness issues on reference hardware.{{cite web |url=https://webkit.org/blog/280/full-pass-of-acid-3/ |title=Full Pass Of Acid3 |access-date=September 29, 2008 |last=Stachowiak |first=Maciej |date=September 25, 2008 |work=Surfin' Safari – The WebKit Blog |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929003302/http://webkit.org/blog/280/full-pass-of-acid-3/ |archive-date=September 29, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}

JavaScriptCore is a framework that provides a JavaScript engine for WebKit implementations, and provides this type of scripting in other contexts within macOS.{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/projects/javascript/|title=The WebKit Open Source Project – JavaScript|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150814004755/http://www.webkit.org/projects/javascript/|archive-date=August 14, 2015|df=mdy-all}} JavaScriptCore is originally derived from KDE's JavaScript engine (KJS) library (which is part of the KDE project) and the PCRE regular expression library. Since forking from KJS and PCRE, JavaScriptCore has been improved with many new features{{Such as|date=May 2025}} and greatly improved performance.{{cite web |title=The Great Browser JavaScript Showdown |url=http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001023.html |date=December 19, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906204651/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001023.html |archive-date=September 6, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}

On June 2, 2008, the WebKit project announced they rewrote JavaScriptCore as "SquirrelFish", a bytecode interpreter. The project evolved into SquirrelFish Extreme (abbreviated SFX, marketed as Nitro), announced on September 18, 2008 further speeding up JavaScript execution.

An optimizing just-in-time (JIT) compiler named FTL was announced on May 13, 2014.{{cite news|url=https://webkit.org/blog/3362/introducing-the-webkit-ftl-jit/|title=Introducing the WebKit FTL JIT|newspaper=Webkit |date=May 13, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119202735/https://webkit.org/blog/3362/introducing-the-webkit-ftl-jit/|archive-date=January 19, 2017|df=mdy-all}} It uses LLVM to generate optimized machine code. "FTL" stands for "Fourth-Tier-LLVM", and unofficially for faster-than-light, alluding to its speed.{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/apple-integrates-llvm-compiler-to-boost-webkit-javascript-performance/|title=Apple integrates LLVM compiler to boost WebKit JavaScript performance|date=May 16, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708093248/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/apple-integrates-llvm-compiler-to-boost-webkit-javascript-performance/|archive-date=July 8, 2017|df=mdy-all}} As of February 15, 2016, the backend of FTL JIT is replaced by "Bare Bones Backend" (or B3 for short).{{cite web|url=https://webkit.org/blog/5852/introducing-the-b3-jit-compiler/|title=Introducing the B3 JIT Compiler|date=February 15, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503053344/https://webkit.org/blog/5852/introducing-the-b3-jit-compiler/|archive-date=May 3, 2017|df=mdy-all}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

• Comparison of browser engines
• List of WebKit-based browsers

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{Official website}}
• {{Official website|https://webkitgtk.org}} for WebKitGTK
• [https://webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html SunSpider 1.0 JavaScript Benchmark] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215161706/https://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html |date=December 15, 2018 }}

{{Web browser engines}}

{{MacOS}}

{{ECMAScript}}

{{Widget engine}}

{{Web browsers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webkit}}

Category:1999 software

Category:2005 software

Category:Application programming interfaces

Category:Free layout engines

Category:Free software programmed in C++

Category:Mobile software

Category:Software based on WebKit

Category:Software forks

Category:Software that uses Cairo (graphics)

WebKitGTK

Category:Software using the BSD license

Category:Apple Inc. developed frameworks