6 ms·

Great write up and +1 kudos to author for diving into the details. For the mere mortals out there looking to make their GIF, JPEG, and PNG images smaller (and

Great write up and +1 kudos to author for diving into the details. For the mere mortals out there looking to make their GIF, JPEG, and PNG images smaller (and websites faster), I highly recommend ImageOptim (http://imageoptim.com/ http://imageoptim.com/). This Mac-only tool combines all of the libraries below to compress your images down to the (nearly if not the) smallest, cross-system compatible size. If you're Mac based, try this: * ImageOptim http://imageoptim.com/ http://imageoptim.com/ If you're Linux based, try these: * PNGOut - http://www.advsys.net/ken/util/pngout.htm http://www.advsys.net/ken/util/pngout.htm * advpng - http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/doc-advpng.html http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/doc-advpng.html * pngcrush - http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/ http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/ * optipng - http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ * jpegoptim - http://www.kokkonen.net/tjko/projects.html http://www.kokkonen.net/tjko/projects.html * gifsicle - http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/ http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle/

Inversechi 14y ago
Just to add... for PNG optimisations on Windows. * PNGGauntlet - http://pnggauntlet.com/ http://pnggauntlet.com/ - Combines PNGOUT, OptiPNG, and DeflOpt.
- j_s 14y ago
  If you're desperate to save space (or creating thumbnails), Windows/C# devs can lossily cut down PNGs to 256 color/8-bit using nQuant http://nquant.codeplex.com/ http://nquant.codeplex.com/ Matt Wrock documented the creation of the tool, including details on the approaches taken by tools like OptiPNG: http://www.mattwrock.com/post/2011/09/05/Convert-32-bit-PNGs-to-high-quality-8-bit-PNGs-with-C.aspx http://www.mattwrock.com/post/2011/09/05/Convert-32-bit-PNGs...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
molf 14y ago
Worth mentioning as well is TinyPNG - http://tinypng.org/ http://tinypng.org/, a free web service that uses lossy compression to shrink PNG images.
- ars 14y ago
  If you want it locally: http://pngnq.sourceforge.net/ http://pngnq.sourceforge.net/ I think the service simply uses that program behind the scenes.
  - SquareWheel 14y ago
    No, they use their own tech. It uses some pre-existing algorithms but it's currently not available for offline use.
    - pornel 14y ago
      TinyPNG uses http://pngquant.org http://pngquant.org and optipng.
      - SquareWheel 14y ago
        It's a bit more than that, I know advpng is also used somewhere in the process.
    - j_s 14y ago
      http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 (by molf, apparently someone involved in creating TinyPNG) > Mostly pngquant (the new version), optipng and > advpng. We are still tuning parameters and > swapping in and out tools based on our benchmarks > and testing suite. from their debut on HN back in June, where they caught a lot of flack for being a web service: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964
      - SquareWheel 14y ago
jtheory 14y ago
The coolest aspect of this article IMO was that Gimp's output (with the right options selected) was already the minimum size for a transparent 1x1 gif. He succeeded in trimming only 6 bytes off of that before he abandoned transparency and that was at the cost of getting errors in some programs with the result (no thanks).
mistercow 14y ago
For PNGs, I have yet to come across a tool that would beat PNGOUT.
- verisimilitude 14y ago
  ImageOptim is essentially a wrapper for, among other tools, PNGOUT.
treskot 14y ago
Pngcrush is a great alternative.. and so is smushit - http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/ http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/
kizza 14y ago
For Linux, Trimage does the same thing as ImageOptim, plus it works on the command line: http://trimage.org/ http://trimage.org/
przemoc 14y ago
I did a few tests some time ago and to obtain tiniest possible images on majority of files I have to do following sequences PNG: advpng -z4, optipng -o7, advdef -z4 JPG: jpegtran -copy none, jpegrescan (that also uses jpegtran) GIF: gifsicle -O3 They are quite time consuming (especially in case of PNG), but if you know any better sequences, please let me know!
- Teapot 14y ago
  http://davidcrowell.com/jstrip http://davidcrowell.com/jstrip jscl.exe -d -j -n -r -s ¤.jp¤ Instantly gets rid of more jpg junk. Edit: replace asterixes with ¤

Inversechi 14y ago

Just to add... for PNG optimisations on Windows. * PNGGauntlet - http://pnggauntlet.com/ http://pnggauntlet.com/ - Combines PNGOUT, OptiPNG, and DeflOpt.

j_s 14y ago
If you're desperate to save space (or creating thumbnails), Windows/C# devs can lossily cut down PNGs to 256 color/8-bit using nQuant http://nquant.codeplex.com/ http://nquant.codeplex.com/ Matt Wrock documented the creation of the tool, including details on the approaches taken by tools like OptiPNG: http://www.mattwrock.com/post/2011/09/05/Convert-32-bit-PNGs-to-high-quality-8-bit-PNGs-with-C.aspx http://www.mattwrock.com/post/2011/09/05/Convert-32-bit-PNGs...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

molf 14y ago

Worth mentioning as well is TinyPNG - http://tinypng.org/ http://tinypng.org/, a free web service that uses lossy compression to shrink PNG images.

ars 14y ago
If you want it locally: http://pngnq.sourceforge.net/ http://pngnq.sourceforge.net/ I think the service simply uses that program behind the scenes.
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  No, they use their own tech. It uses some pre-existing algorithms but it's currently not available for offline use.
  - pornel 14y ago
    TinyPNG uses http://pngquant.org http://pngquant.org and optipng.
    - SquareWheel 14y ago
      It's a bit more than that, I know advpng is also used somewhere in the process.
  - j_s 14y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 (by molf, apparently someone involved in creating TinyPNG) > Mostly pngquant (the new version), optipng and > advpng. We are still tuning parameters and > swapping in and out tools based on our benchmarks > and testing suite. from their debut on HN back in June, where they caught a lot of flack for being a web service: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4167964
    - SquareWheel 14y ago

jtheory 14y ago

The coolest aspect of this article IMO was that Gimp's output (with the right options selected) was already the minimum size for a transparent 1x1 gif. He succeeded in trimming only 6 bytes off of that before he abandoned transparency and that was at the cost of getting errors in some programs with the result (no thanks).

mistercow 14y ago

For PNGs, I have yet to come across a tool that would beat PNGOUT.

verisimilitude 14y ago
ImageOptim is essentially a wrapper for, among other tools, PNGOUT.

treskot 14y ago

Pngcrush is a great alternative.. and so is smushit - http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/ http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/

kizza 14y ago

For Linux, Trimage does the same thing as ImageOptim, plus it works on the command line: http://trimage.org/ http://trimage.org/

przemoc 14y ago

I did a few tests some time ago and to obtain tiniest possible images on majority of files I have to do following sequences PNG: advpng -z4, optipng -o7, advdef -z4 JPG: jpegtran -copy none, jpegrescan (that also uses jpegtran) GIF: gifsicle -O3 They are quite time consuming (especially in case of PNG), but if you know any better sequences, please let me know!

Teapot 14y ago
http://davidcrowell.com/jstrip http://davidcrowell.com/jstrip jscl.exe -d -j -n -r -s ¤.jp¤ Instantly gets rid of more jpg junk. Edit: replace asterixes with ¤