A photo straight from your camera can easily weigh 5–10 MB. For a website, an email attachment, or a WhatsApp document, that's far more than you need. The trick is shrinking the file without shrinking the quality — and that comes down to two decisions: format and quality setting.
Know your three formats
| Format | Best for | Transparency | Typical size |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG | Photos, gradients | No | Small |
| PNG | Logos, screenshots, graphics | Yes | Large |
| WebP | Almost everything modern | Yes | Smallest |
WebP typically beats JPEG by 25–35% and PNG by 60–80% at equivalent visual quality, and it supports transparency. Every modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari 14+) displays it natively.
The workflow we recommend
- Resize first. A 4000px photo displayed at 800px wastes 90% of its bytes. Use the Image Resizer to match your real display size.
- Choose WebP output. In the Image Compressor, select WebP unless you specifically need PNG or JPEG.
- Set quality to 80–85. Above 90 the file grows fast with invisible gains; below 70 artifacts start appearing in photos.
- Compare before/after sizes. The tool shows exact savings per file — if a result looks too aggressive, bump quality up one notch and re-run.
Why did my PNG get bigger? PNG is lossless, and browsers re-encode it less efficiently than dedicated optimizers. If your goal is a smaller file, convert to WebP instead of staying in PNG.
When you should keep PNG
- Graphics with sharp edges and few colors (logos, UI screenshots)
- Images where any loss is unacceptable (legal exhibits, medical imagery)
- Workflows that require transparency in legacy software that can't read WebP
Follow those four steps and most photos land 70–90% smaller while looking identical on screen — and because everything runs in your browser, your pictures never leave your device.
Ready to shrink your images? It takes about ten seconds.
Open Image Compressor