How to compress your images without affecting the quality? Learning how to reduce the size of a photo and compress an image in a professional way, in order to upload it as optimally as possible to a website, is an indispensable job. Any administrator of an Online project, be it an eCommerce, a blog or a service sales page, should master this whole topic correctly.

But that is not all, but the fact of being able to lower the weight without losing quality will allow you to improve the loading speed of all those URL’s where these elements and digital illustrations are present, with the large number of benefits that this has for SEO and Web usability.

And, as you probably intuit, if the images included in the design of a website are not optimized correctly, they will consume a large amount of resources from your hosting service and will make it much slower.

How To Compress Images Or Reduce The Size Of Photos On A Website Or Blog?


So, if we take into account that on the Internet photographs, banners and infographics are the most seductive content, and that we will surely want to use them on our website or blog, knowing which are the main tools to compress photos without losing quality is a fundamental need. .

But, it is necessary to bear in mind that the most important thing before lowering the weight of an image so that it does not lose visual appeal, is to assess whether the pixel size of the image is appropriate according to the place on our site where the image is let’s show.

Photo Editing Software Screen. Abstract Vector Application for Photographers to Edit Pictures.

What are the steps to take to optimize the images of a website?

Taking this into account, I would like to make an important clarification to you, when we talk about compressing photos we refer to the following 2 actions that should always be closely linked to each other:

  • First, we resize the image to the smallest number of pixels required .
  • And secondly, we lower the weight (Mb or Kb) of it without losing its visual quality.

Let’s see an example:

If your website has a maximum width of «800 or 900 px» for your content, it would make no sense for your images to exceed that same size. Taking into account that they will never be shown with the dimensions you have uploaded them to, you would only be loading them with unnecessary weight.

In this case, you are missing out on an even smaller number of pixels. And thanks to this, when you compress the image, you also get a file of a much lower weight than the other size.

In short, this action is associated not only with reducing the weight in the amount of Mb or Kb, but also in the size or number of pixels of that photo.

If you do not perform the two actions together (reduce and compress), your WordPress or another CMS you use, it will take an extra job to rescale it to be displayed , in addition to the fact that the resulting photo would have a worse quality.

So, you must first make sure that the pixel size of the photo is appropriate (if not adjust it) and then secondly compress the image .

For this reason, in this post we will see a wide list of the best free Online or desktop platforms and applications:

What Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality?


All of these will allow us to reduce the size of those photos (or the weight of an image) without having to sacrifice their visual quality in the process that I just explained to you. Therefore, we go with them:

1) TinyPNG

TinyPNG - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

This is the free page to compress photos or to reduce the size of the images that I use most in my day to day. With it I optimize the weight of almost all JPG and PNG files that I am going to upload to my blog (also those in this post) .

TinyPNG supports uploading 20 files at once up to 5MB each. Despite the name of this tool, it is capable of reducing the weight of a jpg or png file.

After automatically reducing the size of the photos, TinyPNG allows us to download them one by one or in batches , either in a compressed folder called «tinified» or host them in our Dropbox account.

The results and the ease of use of this tool make it very worthwhile to use it since there are also very few clicks necessary to have your photos reduced in weight.

It makes it easy to compress or resize an image for free and with very little quality loss. That is, by selectively reducing the number of superfluous colors, they will also reduce their size in bytes.

TinyPNG is one of the most powerful photo compression services on the market. She reduces a large percentage of the weight of an image (sometimes dramatically) only by improving the number of colors, without being able to do any quality.

TinyPNG also provides a free WordPress plugin and a paid one for Photoshop, compatible with Windows and Mac.

2) Squoosh.app

Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Last year Google introduced us to SQUOOSH.APP , it was originally presented as a developer application or tool, but today it can be used by any type of user.

It is completely free and works 100% Online , that is, from any web browser. Thanks to this, it does not consume media from your computer or mobile device and allows us to compress images reducing their weight and change the format of the files.

The application allows us to convert to 6 different formats: PNG, JPG, OptiPNG, MozJPG, WebP, Browser or WebP.

With the entry into play of Squoosh, Google has wanted to offer a converter that helps us prioritize the loading speed of our Webs.

3) PhotoShop

PhotoShop - Reduce, compress or resize photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

This well-known photo editing and retouching program has a free functionality called « Save Image for Web “.

From it, and once all the relevant changes have been made, you can save your image with “minimum viable” characteristics, so that it has the least possible weight. All this, of course, without compromising its quality.

And it is that this option is super useful, since sometimes we find that even if we pass a photo through Online tools, it still weighs more than recommended.

Of course, the format in which you save the file will be JPG , which you must take into account if this is not the desired format to treat it later.

Still, I recommend using that PhotoShop feature to get out of more trouble with regard to reducing the weight of the photos you want to upload to your website.

»You are also interested in reading:

4) Abraia.me

Abraia.me: Smart web Image and Video Optimization, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Abraia.me is the plugin that I have installed right now in my WordPress.

He has both a free version and several special payment plans, depending on the size of our pages or eCommerce.

I discovered ABRAIA (Smart web Image and Video Optimization), with Online version and with modules or plugins for PrestaShop, WP, Shopify and Magento, thanks to my friend Álvaro Fontela de Raiola.

5) Smush Image Compression and Optimization (Smush It!)

Smush is an online application and free WordPress plugins to compress photos on the Internet (owned by Yahoo!).

With the plugin previously known as Smush.it we can reduce the size of a photo without modifying its appearance, reduce image quality or lose part of the size (height and width of it).

Smush Image Compression and Optimization makes it easy for us to process a large number of file types and formats (such as: JPG, GIF and PNG).

»It may interest you: Types Of Image Files When To Use JPEG, GIF or PNG?

In addition, he is one of the best known and used WordPress plugins on the market.

Although in the past this plugin was one of the main options in image compression services, today there are many others that have been put on a par or that offer much superior benefits to it.

6) Kraken.io

Kraken.io - Free Online Image Optimizer, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Surely, even if you do not know Kraken yet , you will be surprised once you try it, since it is a tool that is not very “crowded”, which makes it very fast.

In addition, it has the possibility of uploading your photos in «Drag & Drop» mode , that is to say, just by dragging your elements, you can have them on the platform, so that in a few seconds, you can lose weight.

It has 3 compression modes, each of them adding a greater or lesser percentage regarding the final weight.

7) JPEGmini

JPEGmini - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

With JPEGmini , which is a tool to reduce the size of the photos (significantly reduces the weight of the photos, up to almost 80%), you can preserve the high resolution and quality of your content.

JPEGmini has a free online version that makes it easy for us to upload up to 20 photographs per day and, as on other websites, it also offers different options or Premium (or Pro) versions with no restrictions.

8) Optimizilla

Optimizilla - reduce photos size, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

With Optimizilla you can compress the weight of up to 20 images at a time.

However, its biggest difference from other tools that I mention in this post is that while each file is in the queue, you can adjust the compression level using a slider . Furthermore, it is possible to compare the result with the original file.

Thus, it is a very useful tool to have greater control over the compression level of our images, being able to view their results before downloading them. The formats supported by Optimizilla are PNG and JPEG.

9) Compress JPEG

Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Compress Jpeg is a free online application that allows you to compress multiple images simultaneously. It supports the formats: JPG, PNG and SVG.

In addition, Compress Jpeg , which supports compressing up to 20 photos at a time, makes it easy to download by creating a zip file with all the content .

10) Image Optimizer

Image Optimizer is a free tool that is available online or in desktop application format, to download and install on your computer.

With ImageOptimizer.net you can compress photos or change their quality, you can also change the size of your image files indicating a width and height, with just a few clicks.

11) Optmizer.io

It is a WordPress plugin launched by Webempresa hosting, open to be used by any user, whether or not a client.

It is a plugin that is responsible for optimizing and reducing the weight of the images once uploaded to our server.

Optimizador.io promises between 20% and 70% weight reduction without appreciable quality loss.

The plugin is very easy to use, just install, activate and automatically takes care of optimizing our images. It also identifies the new content that we upload and once optimized it will show us the percentage of weight reduction achieved in them.

In addition, another feature that makes this plugin interesting is that the photos are taken from our server and optimized on that of Webempresa. And then replace them again with those already optimized, thus saving our server work.

12) Compressor.io

Compressor.io - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Compressor.io is a very easy to use tool that provides a powerful reduction in the size of a photo or that compresses images in a very optimal way.

It allows to reduce the size of the photos drastically while maintaining a very high visual quality of them, with almost no discrepancy in the before or after compression of that image.

Compressor.io accepts files up to 10 MB in weight, which manage to compress almost 90% of the original weight.

Unlike other tools this one allows you to choose compression with or without loss of quality (“lossless” or “lossy”)

Another advantage it has is that it supports up to four different formats:

  • Jpeg
  • PNG
  • GIF
  • SVG

After processing, Compressor.io allows you to download the file to your computer or save it to Dropbox and Google Drive.

13) CompressNow

Compressnow - Tool to compress images, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

This is an online service at no cost, that is, with CompressNow you can compress images for free since it supports files in gif, jpeg and png formats.

Compressnow allows us to upload a wide variety of files (up to 9 MB) and choose different levels of image weight reduction, preserving the width and height of the original photograph.

14) ImageOptim (for Mac)

ImageOptim (for MAC), Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

As you have read in the title of this tool, Apple users have a great help here in optimizing images.

And it is that ImageOptin is a downloadable program with which you will lower and “scratch” the weight of the photos that you must upload to your website or have available for your personal or client projects.

Without a doubt, I highly recommend it.

15) Short Pixel

Pixel Short, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

This is one of the WordPress plugins that Web designers recommend the most to optimize your images, without compromising their quality.

Short Pixel promises its users to reduce around 70 – 80% of the weight of each one of them and in just a few seconds, which does not make you waste time too much.

16) Shrink Pictures

ShrinkPictures is an online tool to reduce photo size with very little quality loss.

It allows us to change the size of the images and choose the level of compression to apply. Shrink Pictures supports JPG, GIF, and PNG.

This application has a control panel in which you can select the maximum dimension or the way in which we are going to compress photos, apply special effects and download the optimized files.

Shrink Pictures ensures privacy, by reducing the size of a photo, by using an automated script to delete them from your server after download.

17) PUNYpng

PunyPNG - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

PUNYpng.com is a web service for compressing lossless image quality photos for GIF, JPG, and PNG. It is a bit restrictive, it only allows you to upload 20 files at a time and each one with no more than 500 KB in size or weight.

Of course, you can have the possibility to upload them in batches or reduce the weight more by acquiring any of the payment plans they offer.

18) Zara4

Zara4, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

I bet you didn’t know this Online page to reduce and compress your photos for free, right?

It is not surprising, since Zara4.com , far from having any relationship with the textile sector, is a very simple program to use and that also gives you all the facilities in the world.

This is because, with it, you can also change the size and dimensions of your images , since thanks to its rescaling function, you can indicate both the width and the final height at which you want to leave them.

19) PngOptimizer

PngOptimizer is a simple program to install in Windows, to compress photos or to clean unnecessary bytes and reduce PNG files.

It also allows you to apply a conversion to other image file formats (BMP, GIF, TGA) to PNG without any loss of quality.

This program to reduce photos has a very intuitive and easy to use drag and drop interface.

20) PNGGauntlet

PNGGauntlet - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

This is a tool compatible with the Windows operating system that you can install on your computer.

PNGGauntlet.com combines other services like PNGOUT, OptiPNG and DeflOpt to reduce photos or PNG files without loss of quality.

In the same way, this free application also converts JPG, GIF, TIFF and BMP file formats to PNG.

21) Web Resizer

Web Resizer - Tool to compress photos, Free Tools To Compress Or Resize Photos Without Losing Image Quality

Web Photo Resizer offers an image optimization service for our website. With this tool we are going to be able to do some of those previous tasks that I was talking about at the beginning to adapt to the optimal sizes.

Some of those tasks that we can do with WebResizer.com are:

  • Cut
  • Resize (width, height)
  • Rotate
  • Improve general settings (contrast, brightness, saturation) automatically with just a click of a few buttons
  • Convert to black and white
  • Reduce the weight of each image

22) Shrink O’Matic

Shrink O’Matic is an Adobe AIR application that allows you to reduce the size of photos in batches without losing the visual quality of the photos (handles JPEG, GIF and PNG.).

She facilitates its use by dragging and dropping files within the application to be compressed or resized.

With Shrink O’Matic you can also customize the settings and choose the final compressed photo size, rotation, name, location, format and watermark.

23) FILEminimizer Pictures

FILEminimizer Pictures - Tool to compress photos

FILEminimizer Pictures is a free program or software that allows you to reduce photos or the weight in megabytes of an image without losing almost any resolution (up to 98%).

It allows you to choose between four different levels of photo compression, for any of the following types of files:

  • JPG
  • BMP
  • GIF
  • TIFF
  • PNG
  • EMF

It also allows batch compression with files up to 5 MB in weight.

In addition, thanks to its integration with the Facebook api, it also allows you to optimize the images or compress them and then upload them directly to that social network.

FILEminimizer Pictures also has a Premium suite version that supports the compression of a greater number of other formats (PDF, PowerPoint, Office, etc.) and that integrates easily with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes.

It is one of the applications most focused on professional use.

Conclusion

When it comes to improving our presence on the Internet, a differentiating factor is having a visually attractive and pleasant design on our website.

Using any of the good tools recommended in this post will allow us to optimize and compress our images without losing that quality. But, in addition to this, that design must also be correctly optimized in terms of SEO.

And a key aspect to take into account here, is to reduce the size and weight of the photos we use on our site so as not to affect their loading times.

In short, it is an optimization factor that we must carry out from the beginning (and at all times) with each new file that we upload to our hosting.

And this, without a doubt, is something basic to take care of our WPO .

Although keep in mind that this is only a first step, then it is time to implement many other SEO strategies On-page and Off-page to improve the visibility and positioning of those pages (you may be interested:Seo On-Page: Basic Guide To Web Positioning For Your Blog ).

Source: josefacchin.com