Image compression is the process of minimizing the size in bytes of a photo, image, or graphics file without degrading the image quality to an unacceptable level.
The file size is reduced to make sure that you can store a greater number of images in the same disk or memory space. Reducing the image size might also be necessary if you want to attach it in an email.
You can compress different types of image files that include:
When optimizing your images, you can choose between two types of compression: lossy and lossless image compression.
Lossy image compression is the process of reducing an image’s size where some data from the original image file is lost. And this process is irreversible, which means that you can’t go back to the original image.
Lossless image compression is the process of reducing an image’s size where the image quality is not affected. For this, the image compressors remove unnecessary metadata from the PNG and JPG/JPEG image files.
You should choose to compress your images using the lossless image compression method as it allows you to retain the quality of your images while reducing their file sizes.
Here’s an example of lossless image compression:
The main purpose of image compression is to reduce the size of your image file.
Wondering why you might need to reduce an image’s size?
Here are a few possible reasons:
Image compression has now become easier than ever.
Compress your PNG and JPG/JPEG images online for free. TinyImage allows you to compress up to five images (max. 5 MB each) in one go.