Image Optimizer
compress-image
How to Optimize Imagesfor the Web's Performance, without sacrificing Quality
Did you be aware that optimizing images prior to uploading them to WordPress can have a major effect on your website's speed?
When making a blog for the first time, many new bloggers upload images without making them web-friendly. Large image files can make your website's performance slow.
You can fix this by applying photo optimization best techniques as part of your routine blogging routine.
This article In this article, we'll teach you how to optimize your images for faster internet performance without losing quality. We will also discuss automatic image optimization plug-ins designed for WordPress that can make life easier.
Since this is a thorough guide on image optimization for web, we have created an easy to follow table of content:
- What's the definition of image optimization? (optimized image vs. unoptimized)
- Why is image optimization important? What are the advantages?
- How can you preserve and optimize images for web performance?
- Top image optimization tools and software
- The best picture optimization extensions for WordPress
What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)
Image optimization is a method of saving and delivering images in the smallest possible file size , without compromising the overall quality of the image.
Although it sounds like a complicated process the process is actually fairly easy nowadays. One of the numerous image optimization programs and tools to automatically compress images by more than 80% and without any visible loss of image quality.
Here's an example vs unoptimized image:
As you can see, if optimized correctly, the image could be 75% smaller than its original size without any quality loss.
How does Image Optimization function?
In simple words in simple terms, image optimization is achieved by using compression technologies such as "Lossy" and "Lossless" that helps reduce the total size of files without causing any loss in quality.
What is it to Optimize Images?
If you've ever received an instruction to optimize images by your WordPress hosting support or by the speed test tool then all it means is that you must reduce the file size of your images by optimizing them for web.
Why is Image Optimization Important? What are the Benefits of Image Optimization?
There are many advantages of optimizing your pictures, these are the top benefits you need to know:
- Speedier website loading
- Enhanced SEO rankings
- A higher overall conversion rate for sales and leads
- Reduced storage and bandwidth (which can lower hosting costs as well as CDN cost)
- Speedier backups of websites (also reduces the cost for backup storage)
Images, besides video, are the next largest item that a website page can host. According to HTTP archives, photos account for in the average 21% the total weight of a website's.
As we have seen that faster websites perform better in search engine results (SEO) and are able to achieve better conversion rates which is why image optimization is something that every website needs to do if they want to succeed online.
You might be thinking how big of a difference can image optimization really impact?
According to the findings of a Strangeloop study, a one second delay in loading time for websites can cost you 7% on sales. That's 11% less pageviews, as well as a 16% reduction in satisfaction of customers.
If none of these reasons are enough to speed up the loading time of your site You should be aware that search engines like Google also provide SEO preferential preference to faster-loading sites.
By optimizing your website's images this can improve the speed of your website 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 successful image optimization of web pages is to find the perfect ratio between the smallest size of the file and acceptable quality images.
Three factors that play a huge 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 these three, you could reduce your images' size by up 80 percent.
Let's take a look at each one in more detail.
- Image File Format
For the majority of website owners, the three primary images formats that really count to consider are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. The right choice of format is essential to image optimization.
To make things easy You should choose JPEGs in the case of images or photographs that have a lot of colors. PNGs for simple images or when you require transparent images. You can also use GIF to create animated images.
For those who aren't aware of the distinction between each file type, the image format PNG is uncompressed , which means it is a higher quality image. The downside is that file sizes are much bigger.
However, JPEG is a compressed file format that reduces image quality in order to give a much smaller size file.
However, GIF only uses 256 colors together with lossless compression, which means it is the best option for animated images.
On WPBeginner, we use all three image formats , based on the kind of image.
2. Compression
The next thing is image compression that plays an essential role in image optimization.
There are many types and levels of compression available. Settings for every will differ based on the compression tool you employ.
The majority of image editors, including Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and many others have built-in features to compress images.
You could also save your images in the normal way or use a web tool like TinyPNG or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.
While it's not the most user-friendly These two methods permit you to compress your images prior to uploading images to WordPress which is what we do with WPBeginner.
There are many well-known WordPress plugins, such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images when you first upload them. Many beginners and even large corporations prefer to use these image optimization plugins because they are simple and quick.
We'll discuss more details about these WordPress plugins later in the article.
3. Image Dimensions
Normally, when you download a photograph from your smartphone or digital camera, it has a very high resolution and huge file dimensions (height and length).
Typically, these photos come with resolutions of 300 DPI and sizes ranging from 2000 pixels and higher. These photos of high quality are suitable for printing or desktop publishing. They are not appropriate for websites.
Reducing file dimensions to something less limiting can drastically reduce the size of an image. Resize images with an image editing program installed on your personal computer.
For example, we optimized the image with 1.8 Megabytes as its original file size, 300 DPI resolution, and dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.
We opted for the Jpeg format to allow greater compression. We also changed the dimensions to 1200x795 inches, and it decreased the image file size to 103 KB. That's 94% less than the original file size.
Now that you know the three main factors involved in image optimization, let's take a take a look at various image optimization tools available to website owners.
Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs
Like we mentioned earlier, the majority of image editing software comes with image optimization or compression setting.
Beyond the image editing software there are other powerful and affordable image optimization tools you can apply to optimize images for web usage (with only few clicks).
We recommend making use of these tools for optimizing images before you upload them to WordPress, specially if you are an perfectionist.
This method can help you save some space within your WordPress hosting account and guarantees the fastest image and the finest quality because you manually examine each image.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a premium software that comes with a feature to save images specifically designed for the web. Just open the image in Photoshop and select"File > Save to Web" "File >> Save for Web" option.
This will open a new dialog box. To the right, it is possible to select various image formats. In the case of JPEG format, you'll get a range of quality options. When you pick your option it will also show you the file size in the lower left.
GIMP
GIMP is a free and open source alternative to popular Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to make your images more attractive for use on the web. The disadvantage is that it's not as straightforward to utilize as other alternatives on this list.
First, you need to open the image in GIMP and then select File > Export As option. It will open the dialog box for saving your file. Change the file's name, then click"Export.
This will present options to export images. When you export JPEGs, you can choose the compression rate to reduce the size of the file. In the end, you can click on"export button" in order for you to save an optimized picture file.
TinyPNG
TinyPNG is a completely free web application that utilizes a lossy compression method to minimize the size of your PNG files. All you need to do is go to their site and upload your images (simple drag and drop).
They will compress the image and then provide you with the download link. You can also visit their sister site, TinyJPG in order to get JPEG file compression.
They also have the extension Adobe Photoshop which is what we use as part of our editing process for images because it combines the best of TinyPNG and TinyJPG in Photoshop.
Developers can use an API to convert images automatically, and for beginners , they provide the WordPress plugin that will automatically convert images for you (more on this in the future).
JPEG Mini
JPEGmini utilizes lossless compression technique that reduces the size of images but without any impact on their perceived quality. It is also possible to compare the quality of the original image with the compression image.
The web version for free and then purchase the software to run on your personal computer. They also have a pay API that can automate the process on your server.
ImageOptim
ImageOptim is an Mac software that allows you the compression of images with no losing any quality, by locating the best compression parameters and taking out unnecessary color profiles.
Windows alternative to this is Trimage.
Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress
Our opinion is that the best way to optimize your images is to prepare them before uploading images to WordPress. If, however, you operate an author-based site or require an automatic solution then it is possible to use the WordPress image compression plugin.
Here is our list of the top WordPress compressors for images:
- Optimole one of the most well-known plugins created by the group behind ThemeIsle.
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- Compress JPEG and PNG images - plugin by TinyPNG team that is mentioned earlier in the article.
- Imagify plugin is developed by the popular WP Rocket plugin team.
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer
- WP Smush
- reSmush.it
Using any ones of them WordPress image optimization plugins can help make your website faster.
Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization
If you aren't saving images that are optimised for web, it's time to do that now. It'll make a massive difference to the speed of your website as well as your customers will thank you for it.
Additionally, faster websites are better for SEO, and you will likely see an increase in your rankings on search engines.
make use of this tool convert to png
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