Image compressor

Why "nothing is uploaded" is the point here

Think about what people actually put through an image compressor. A scan of a passport for a visa application. A photograph of a CNIC for a bank form. A signed contract. Pictures of their children. The tool asks for an image, and that is the image they have to hand.

Every popular free compressor sends that file to a server, processes it there, and sends it back. Their privacy policy will say it is deleted after an hour, and it probably is. But you have handed a stranger's computer a copy of your passport to save 200 kilobytes, and you cannot check what happened to it.

This one reads the file with your own browser, draws it onto a canvas and re-encodes it there. That claim is testable and you should test it rather than believe it — so here is exactly what you will find. Open your developer tools, go to the network tab, and compress something.

You will see one external request when the page first opens: the analytics script this site loads, the same as almost every site you visit. Then nothing. Pick an image, resize it, change the quality, download it — not one request fires, because there is no server behind this page for a request to go to. Your picture is never part of anything that leaves the machine.

It removes the location your camera recorded

A photograph from a phone carries an EXIF block, and that block routinely holds the exact GPS coordinates of where it was taken, along with the time, the device and sometimes the owner's name. Post the picture and you have posted your house.

Re-encoding writes a new file from the pixels alone, so EXIF does not survive. That is a side effect of how this works rather than a feature that had to be built, and it is the right default for anything going onto the internet. The one EXIF field that is read first is the rotation tag, because ignoring it is what makes portrait phone photographs come out on their side.

Choosing the settings

Quality

For photographs on a website, 75 to 85 is the range worth using — at normal viewing size the difference from the original is hard to find. Below about 60, JPEG artefacts start to show as smearing around sharp edges and any text in the image. Quality has no effect on PNG, which is lossless; there, the saving comes from resizing.

Longest side

This is usually where the real saving is. A modern phone takes a 4000-pixel photograph; a full-width image on a website is displayed at about 1600. You are sending four times the pixels anybody will ever see. Resizing to 1920 is invisible on screen and often cuts the file by three quarters before any quality setting is applied.

Format

• WebP — typically 25 to 35% smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality, supported by every current browser. The right choice for a website.
• JPEG — when the file has to be opened by older software, attached to a government form, or handled by someone whose tools you cannot predict.
• PNG — lossless, and the right choice for logos, screenshots, diagrams and anything with text or flat colour. Wrong for photographs, where it is often several times larger than JPEG.

When compression makes the file bigger

It happens, and it is not a fault. Re-encoding an already well-compressed JPEG at high quality adds bytes instead of removing them, and turning a photograph into a PNG usually doubles it or worse.

Most tools show you the new size and say nothing about it. This one compares the two, tells you plainly, and downloads your original untouched instead of handing you a worse file with a smaller-sounding name. If you need it smaller than that, lower the quality, reduce the longest side, or switch to WebP.

Questions

Are my images uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is read by your own browser, drawn onto a canvas and re-encoded there. No request ever carries it — there is no server behind this page to carry it to. You can check that rather than take it on trust: open your developer tools, go to the network tab, and compress an image. You will see the analytics script the site loads when the page opens, as most sites do, and then nothing at all while it works. This matters because people routinely put passport scans, ID cards and signed documents through compressors that really do upload.

Does this remove EXIF and GPS data?

Yes, as a consequence of how it works. Re-encoding writes a fresh file from the pixels alone, so the EXIF block does not survive — and that block usually holds the exact GPS coordinates where the photograph was taken, along with the camera and the timestamp. Stripping it is the right default for any picture you are about to put on the internet. The rotation tag is read and applied before re-encoding, so portrait photos do not come out sideways.

What quality setting should I use?

For photographs on a website, 75 to 85 is the usual range and the difference from the original is hard to see at normal viewing size. Below about 60, JPEG artefacts start to show around sharp edges and text. For anything with text, a logo, or flat colour, use PNG or WebP instead — JPEG is built for photographs and handles hard edges badly at any quality.

Why did compressing make my file bigger?

Because it was already compressed well, or because the format is wrong for the content. Re-encoding an optimised JPEG at high quality adds bytes rather than removing them, and turning a photograph into a PNG usually doubles it. When that happens this tool says so and downloads your original untouched instead of quietly handing you a worse file.

Should I use WebP?

For the web, usually yes — WebP is typically 25 to 35% smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality and every current browser supports it. Use JPEG when the file has to be opened by older software, attached to a government form, or printed by someone whose tools you cannot predict.

Is there a watermark or a limit?

No watermark, no sign-up, no daily cap. Twenty images at a time and 30 MB each, which are limits of what a browser tab can comfortably hold rather than a paywall.

Does it work offline?

Once the page has loaded, yes — there is nothing left for it to fetch.

What about HEIC from an iPhone?

Not supported, because browsers cannot decode HEIC. Set your iPhone to "Most Compatible" under Settings → Camera → Formats and it will produce JPEGs instead, or share the photo through an app that converts on the way out.

Will it upscale a small image?

No. The longest-side setting only ever shrinks. Enlarging a small image does not add detail that was never captured — it just makes a bigger, softer file.

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