Image Optimizer

compress-image

How can you optimize Imagesfor High Performance on the Internet without Losing Quality

Did you know that optimizing your images prior to uploading to WordPress could have a significant impact on the speed of your web site?

When creating a blog, lots of novices simply upload photos without optimizing them for the web. These huge image files make your website slow.

You can fix this by using images optimizationbest techniques in your regular blogging routine.

The following article In this post, we'll show you how to improve your image for faster website performance, without sacrificing quality. Additionally, we will share automated picture optimization extensions for WordPress that can make your life easier.

Since this is a thorough guide to image optimization for the web We've designed an easy to follow table of contents:

• What's image optimization? (optimized and unoptimized images)
• What makes image optimization crucial? What are the advantages?
• How can I save and optimize images to improve web performance?
• Top image optimization tools and software
• The top picture optimization plug-ins to WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

Image optimization is the process of saving and delivering images at the lowest possible file size , without compromising the overall quality of the image.

Although it sounds like a complicated process however, it's really quite simple to do these days. You can use one of the numerous image optimization plugins and tools to automate the compression of images by at least 80% without any noticeable reduction in image quality.

Here's an example of optimized vs unoptimized image:

As you can see, when optimized correctly, the image can be 75 percent smaller than the original picture without losing any quality.

How does Image Optimization function?

In simple words the simplest way to describe it is that image optimization works by using compression techniques like "Lossy" and "Lossless" that helps reduce the total size of the file without causing any reduction in quality.

What is it to optimize Images?

If you've ever been given an offer to optimize images by your WordPress hosting service or an instrument for speed testing, what it all means is that you should reduce the size of your photos by optimizing them to be used on the web.

Why is Image Optimization Important? What are the Benefits of Image Optimization?

There are many advantages of optimizing your images, below are the top ones to know:

• Faster speed of website
• Improvements in SEO rankings
• Higher overall conversion rate for sales and leads
• A smaller amount of storage and bandwidth (which can reduce hosting and CDN cost)
• More efficient backups for websites (also lowers the cost of backup storage)

Apart from video, images are the next largest item on a webpage. As per HTTP archive, images comprise in the average 21% the total weight of a website's.

Because we know that fast websites rank higher on search engines (SEO) and achieve higher conversions in terms of image optimization is something every website needs to do in order to grow online.

Now , you might be wondering what difference is image optimization can really bring about?

According to a Strangeloop study, one-second delay in website loading can cost you 7% on sales. That's 11% fewer pageviewsand a 16 percent reduction in satisfaction of customers.

If that's not enough reasons to speed up the loading time of your site, then you should know that search engines such as Google are also giving preferential SEO treatment to faster loading websites.

This means that by optimizing your website's images it will improve your web page speed and increase WordPress SEO rankings.

Video Tutorial

If you'd prefer written instructions, just keep reading.

How to Save and Optimize Images for Web Performance?

The key to an effective photo optimization in order to optimize web-based performance, is to find the perfect balance between the most compact file size and acceptable image quality.

Three factors that play an important importance in the process of image optimization are:

• Image file format (JPEG vs PNG vs GIF vs tiff )
• Compression (Higher compression = smaller file size)
• Image Dimensions (height and width)

By choosing the right combination of all three, you can reduce the images' size by up 80%.

Let's take a look at each of these in more details.

1. Image File Format

For most website owners, the only three image file formats that really count is JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Selecting the appropriate file type is crucial for image optimization.

To simplify things To keep things simple, you should use JPEGs when you want to use images or photos with lots of colors. PNGs for basic images or when you require transparent images. You can also use GIF for animated images only.

If you don't know the differences between each file type, PNG image format is uncompressed . This means it's a more high-quality image. The drawback is that the file sizes are much bigger.

On the other hand, JPEG is a compressed file format , which can slightly diminish image quality in order to make it much smaller file size.

While GIF has 256 colors, GIF uses only 256 and lossless compression. This makes it the most appropriate choice in animated image.

On WPBeginner we employ all three image formats , based on the kind of image.

2. Compression

The next step is image compression, which plays an important part on image optimization.

There are various types and levels of image compression that are available. Settings for every differ based on the compression software you are using.

The majority of image-editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and many more have built-in image compression features.

You can also save images normally using a web tool like TinyPNG , or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Though it's a little manual These two methods permit the compression of images prior to uploading them to WordPress This is the process we employ on WPBeginner.

There are also many popular WordPress plugins such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and others that automatically compress images once you upload them for the first time. Many newbies, and even larger corporations use these images optimization plugins due to their ease of use and convenient.

We'll discuss more details about these WordPress plugins later in the article.

3. Image Dimensions

Normally, when you import a picture from your phone or digital camera, the image has an extremely high resolution and large file dimensions (height as well as width).

Typically, these photos have resolutions of 300 DPI and sizes that range from 2000 pixels and up. High-quality photos work well to print or desktop publishing. They are not appropriate for use on websites.

Reduced file size to something more manageable can significantly reduce the size of the file. You can easily resize images with the software for editing images on your personal computer.

We optimized, for instance, an image to have 1.8 megabytes of original file size with a 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

We went with the JPEG format for better compression. We also altered the dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. Additionally, it reduced the file size to 103KB. This is 94% smaller than the original size.

Now that you've identified the three main factors involved in image optimization now let's have a to look into various images optimization tools for website owners.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

As we've mentioned before, most image editing software come including image optimization or compression setting.

Outside of the software for editing images, there are a variety of useful and powerful image optimization tools that you can employ to optimize your images for web (with only two clicks).

We suggest making use of these tools for optimizing images before you upload them to WordPress, specially if you are an expert.

This method helps you save the disk space of your WordPress hosting account, as well as guaranteeing speedy images with finest quality because you manually check each image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software with the option of saving images optimized for the web. Simply open your photo and click"File >> Save for Web" or "File >> Save for Web" option.

The new dialog box. On the rightside, you can choose different image formats. For JPEG format, you'll see a variety of options for quality. When you select your options, it will also reveal the file's size at the bottom left.

GIMP

GIMP is a no-cost and open-source alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to improve your image for online use. Its disadvantage is that it's not as straightforward to use as some of the other alternatives on this list.

In the beginning, open the image within GIMP and then choose File >> Export to option. This will bring up the save file dialog box. Change the file's name, and then click the export button.

This will show options to export images. In the case of JPEG files you can select the compression level to reduce the size of the file. After that, press the export button to save the optimized image file.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a totally free web app that uses a smart lossy compression method to reduce sizes of PNG files. All you have to do is go to their site and upload your images (simple drag and drop).

They compress the image they will give you the download URL. You can use their sister website, TinyJPG which is for JPEG Image compression.

There is also Extensions for Adobe Photoshop which is what we utilize as part of our image editing process since it brings together the best features of TinyJPG and TinyPNG in Photoshop.

For developers, they offer an API that allows you to convert images for them automatically. And for newcomers, they have a WordPress plugin that will convert images for you (more on this later).

JPEG Mini

JPEGmini utilizes lossless compression technique that significantly reduces the size of images without any impact on their perceived quality. It is also possible to compare the quality of the original image and the compressed image.

You can download their web version for no cost and then purchase the software to run on your personal computer. There is also a paid API to automate processes that your server uses.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac software that allows you to compress images without sacrificing any quality. It does this by finding the most effective compression parameters as well as taking out unnecessary color profiles.

Windows alternatives to that are Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

We believe the best method of optimizing your images is to make them optimized prior to uploading images to WordPress. If, however, you operate a multi-author site or need an automation solution it is possible to use an WordPress image compression plugin.

Below is our selection of the best WordPress compressors of images.

1. Optimole - popular plugin by the group behind ThemeIsle.
2. EWWW Image Optimizer
3. Compress JPEG and PNG images using the plugin developed by the TinyPNG team that is mentioned earlier in the article.
4. Imagify - a plugin created by the popular WP Rocket plugin team.
5. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
6. WP Smush
7. reSmush.it

Using any among these WordPress image optimization plugins can help make your website faster.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you're not saving images optimized for webuse, then it's time to begin doing this right today. This will make a major difference to the speed of your website, and your users will thank you for it.

Furthermore, speedier websites are great for SEO and you'll likely experience an increase in your search engine rankings.

Make use of this tool: convert to png