Attaching to forms
Government portals and job boards tend to impose strict size limits. Compressing avoids having to crop the image or resend.
Compress image
Reduce image file size without visible quality loss.
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What it is for
Compressing an image means reducing what it takes up without it showing on screen. It works because a photo holds far more information than the eye can distinguish: minute colour variations, detail in dark areas, nuances that vanish when you look at the picture at normal size. Compression discards some of that and keeps what you actually perceive.
The need comes up constantly. Forms that cap attachments at two megabytes, emails bouncing for size, websites crawling because someone uploaded photos straight out of the camera. A modern phone produces four or five megabyte images that, compressed, come down to a few hundred kilobytes with no visible difference.
The quality slider controls that balance. Between 70 and 80 is usually the sweet spot where the file drops a lot and the image still looks right. Below 50, blotches and dirty edges start to appear, especially in skies and gradients.
How it works
- Upload the JPG or PNG image that takes up too much space.
- Adjust the quality level with the slider: less quality, less file size.
- Click "Process" and download the compressed version instantly.
When to use it
Photos for a website
Heavy images are the most common reason a page loads slowly. Compressing before uploading improves speed and search ranking.
Sending by messaging
A compressed photo album sends in a fraction of the time and does not burn through the recipient’s data.
Practical tips
- Always compress from the original. Recompressing an already compressed image stacks up losses and degrades fast.
- If the image contains text, screenshots or sharp lines, lower the quality only slightly: crisp edges are the first thing to go.
- Compare the result at 100% zoom, not as a thumbnail. Compression artefacts do not show at small sizes.
- If you need to keep transparency or lose no quality at all, the right route is converting to WebP rather than compressing to JPG.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the file size shrink?
It depends on the image, but reducing 50-80% of the original size at 70-80% quality with no visible loss is common.
Why is the result always JPG?
Lossy compression (the kind that actually cuts file size noticeably) is native to the JPG format; if you upload a PNG and need to keep it lossless, use "Convert image" to WebP instead.