Image Compressor — what it does
Shrinks JPG and PNG images in your browser by re-encoding at your chosen quality, with a before/after size readout so you see exactly what you saved. Built for the 2 MB photo that a 200 KB version would serve just as well — blog uploads, email attachments, form limits.
How to use Image Compressor
- Drop one or more images onto the panel — files open locally, never uploaded.
- Set the quality slider; 70–80 is usually invisible and saves the most.
- Compare the before/after sizes and eyeball the preview for artefacts.
- Download individually or all at once.
- Batch mode keeps the same quality across a whole folder of photos.
Worked example: finding the invisible threshold
A 2.1 MB phone photo at quality 80 drops to ~280 KB and looks identical on a phone screen; at 50 it drops to ~120 KB but blocks start showing in flat skies. The honest workflow the tool enables: step down quality until you SEE the damage, then go one notch up. That notch is your real number — not a blog's 'use 60%'.
At a glance
| Formats | JPG and PNG in; JPG/PNG/WebP out depending on options |
|---|---|
| Batch | Multiple files at once, same settings applied |
| Processing | Canvas re-encode in the browser — zero uploads |
| Privacy | Photos never leave the device — safe for personal and client images |
| Limits | Re-encoding is lossy for JPG — it cannot 'restore' detail already thrown away; it does not resize dimensions (that is the resizer's job) |
Frequently asked questions
- What is Image Compressor?
- Compress JPG, PNG and WebP images right in your browser — quality slider, optional max width and an instant before/after preview.
- Is Image Compressor free to use?
- Yes — Image Compressor is free to use, with no sign-up, no install and no account.
- Does Image Compressor upload or store my data?
- No — Image Compressor runs entirely in your browser, so your text, files and results never leave your device.
- Do I need to install anything to use Image Compressor?
- No — it works in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) with no downloads, accounts or plugins.
- Can compressing an image restore its quality?
- No. Compression throws information away permanently. What the tool does is find the lowest quality at which you personally cannot see the loss — every further saving would cost visible quality.
- Compress or resize first?
- Resize first if dimensions are larger than needed (a 4000 px photo for a 800 px blog slot is waste either way), then compress. Order matters: compressing a huge image wastes bytes on pixels you are about to delete.
- Why is my PNG barely shrinking?
- PNG is lossless — screenshots and flat graphics barely compress this way. Photos compress far better as JPG/WebP. If the output is still heavy, the honest answer is that PNG was the wrong source format for that image.