Image Optimizer
compress-image
How to Optimize Images for Web Performance, without sacrificing Quality
Did you think about optimizing your images prior to uploading to WordPress will have a huge impact on the speed of your web site?
When the time comes to start a new blog many beginners simply upload images without optimizing them for the web. Images that are large can make your website more slow.
You can correct this by making use of photo optimization best techniques as part of your routine blog routine.
This article In this article, we'll help you learn how to optimize your images to increase internet performance without losing quality. We will also provide automatic optimization plugins for images. optimization applications for WordPress that will make life easier.
Since this is a comprehensive guide to image optimization for the web we've created an easy to follow table of content:
- What is image optimization? (optimized as opposed to unoptimized)
- Why is image optimization crucial? What are the advantages?
- How do I preserve and optimize images for web performance?
- Top image optimization software and tools
- 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 in the smallest possible file size without reducing the quality of the image overall.
Although the process may sound complicated but it's actually fairly simple to do these days. You can utilize one of the numerous image optimization tools and plugins to automate the compression of images by more than 80% and without any visible reduction in image quality.
Here's an example of optimized images versus unoptimized:
It is evident that if optimized properly the same image could be 75 percent smaller than the original without any degradation in quality.
What is Image Optimization function?
In simple words simply put, image optimization utilize compression technology such as "Lossy" and "Lossless" which help to reduce the overall size of the file, without noticeable loss of quality.
What does it mean to optimize Images?
If you've ever been given an advice to optimize your images by your WordPress hosting team or an instrument for speed testing, the only thing it suggests is that you have to decrease the size of your photos by optimizing them for the web.
Why is Image Optimization Important? What are the Benefits of Image Optimization?
There are many advantages of optimizing images, these are the top benefits worth knowing:
- Speedier website loading
- Increased SEO rankings
- Higher overall conversion rates for sales and leads
- More storage and bandwidth (which can cut hosting and CDN cost)
- Backups on websites are faster (also decreases the cost of backup storage)
Apart from video, images are the next heaviest item that a website page can host. From the HTTP archive pictures account for on average 21% of the total weight of a webpage.
Because we are aware that websites that are speedy rank higher in search engines (SEO) and also have higher conversions images optimization is something every website needs to do for success online.
Now , you may be asking what difference does image optimization can really result in?
According to the findings of a Strangeloop study, a 1 second delay in website loading could result in a loss of 7% from sales. This is amounted to 11% fewer pageviewsand a 16 percent reduction in satisfaction of customers.
If you don't have enough reason to speed up the loading time of your site You should be aware that search engines like Google provide preferential SEO treatment to sites that load faster.
That means that by optimizing your photos for the web and improving your website's speed, you can increase speed of your site as well as 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 most important factor in success in picture optimization in order to optimize web-based performance, is to find the perfect equilibrium between the lowest file size and acceptable image quality.
Three factors that play a crucial importance in optimization of images are: optimization are:
- Image file format (JPEG vs PNG vs GIF vs tiff )
- Compression (Higher compression = smaller file size)
- Image Dimensions (height and width)
If you choose the best combination of three you can reduce your images' size by up 80%.
Let's go over each one in more details.
- Image File Format
For the majority of webmasters, the three primary images file formats that actually have any significance comprise JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Selecting the appropriate file type is crucial for image optimization.
To simplify things In order to keep things simple, use JPEGs in the case of images or photographs that have a lot of colors. PNGs for images that are simple or when you require transparent images, and GIF to create animated images.
For those who aren't sure of what the distinction is between each type, the format of PNG images is not compressed which means it's an image of higher quality. image. However, the downside is that file sizes are much bigger.
However, JPEG is a compressed file format that slightly decreases the quality of images to give a much smaller size file.
The difference is that GIF can only use 256 colors as well as lossless compression that makes it the most suitable choice to use animated pictures.
On WPBeginner we employ all three image formats , based on the kind of image.
2. Compression
The next step is image compression which plays a huge part when it comes to image optimization.
There are different types and levels of image compression available. These settings will differ based on the compression tool you use.
The majority of image editors, including Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and more come with built-in compression tools for images.
You can also save pictures in normal format or use a web tool like TinyPNG , or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.
While it's somewhat manual both methods allow you to compress images prior to uploading images to WordPress as well, which is what we do on WPBeginner.
There are also a variety of popular WordPress plugins, such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images after you first upload them. A lot of newbies and large corporations use these images optimization plugins because they are simple and quick.
We'll explain more about these WordPress plugins in the next article.
3. Image Dimensions
Normally, when you import a picture from your smartphone or digital camera, it has an extremely high resolution as well as big file dimensions (height and wide).
Typically, these photos come with an average resolution of 300 DPI and sizes starting at 2000 pixels up to. These high-quality photographs are great for desktop or print publishing. They are not appropriate for websites.
Reduced file size to something more acceptable can dramatically decrease the size of images. Simply resize images with the image editing software installed on your computer.
For example, we optimized an image to have 1.8 Megabytes as its original file size With a 300 DPI resolution, and dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.
The format we chose was jpeg for greater compression. We also changed the dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. In addition, it decreased the image file size to 103KB. That's 94% less than the size of the original file.
If you're aware of the three main factors involved in image optimization Let's take a take a look at various images optimization techniques for website owners.
Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs
As we have mentioned previously, most image editing software come equipped with photo optimization and compression settings.
Beyond the software for editing images, there are several other powerful , free image optimization tools you can use to optimize your photos for web use (with just the click of a button).
We recommend using these tools to boost the quality of your images prior to uploading them to WordPress especially if are an expert.
This approach helps you conserve the disk space of your WordPress hosting account, and will guarantee you the fastest images and best quality since you have to manually review every image.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a premium software that comes with the option of saving images designed specifically for the web. Simply open your image and click on"File> Save For Web "File >> Save for Web" option.
This will open a brand new dialog box. On the right, you can select different image formats. For JPEG format, you will be able to select different quality options. If you choose your preferred options, it will also indicate the file's dimensions on the bottom left.
GIMP
GIMP is a free and open-source alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to make your images more attractive to be used on the internet. However, it's not as straightforward to use as some of the other methods on this list.
First, open the image within GIMP and then click File > Export As option. This will show the dialog box for saving your file. Give your file a new name and click the export button.
This will bring up options to export images. For JPEG images, you can select the compression setting to reduce the size of the file. Finally, click on the export button to save the optimized image file.
TinyPNG
TinyPNG is a completely free web application that utilizes a lossy compression technique to reduce sizes of PNG images. All you have to do is go to their site and upload your pictures (simple drag & drop).
They will compress the image, and give you a download URL. You can also use their sister website TinyJPG and TinyJPG for JPEG picture compression.
They also have another extension available for Adobe Photoshop which we employ as part of our image editing workflow because it brings together the best features of TinyPNG and TinyJPG in Photoshop.
Developers can use an API for converting images in a way that is automatic, and for novices, they offer the WordPress plugin that can automatically convert images for you (more on this in the future).
JPEG Mini
JPEGmini uses a lossless compression technology that reduces the size and size of images without altering their perception. You can also evaluate the quality of your original image and the compressed image.
It is possible to use their online version for no cost and then purchase the software to run on your personal computer. They also offer a paid API that will automate the process on your server.
ImageOptim
ImageOptim is a Mac tool that lets you for compression without losing any quality by finding the best compression parameters , and removal of unnecessary color profiles.
Windows alternative to this is Trimage.
Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress
The best way to optimize your images is to prepare them before uploading images to WordPress. However, if you run an online site with multiple authors or require an automatic solution then it is possible to use an WordPress image compression plugin.
Below is a list of the best WordPress Image compression software:
- Optimole - popular plugin by the Team behind ThemeIsle.
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- Compress JPEG & PNG images - plugin by TinyPNG team mentioned above in the article.
- Imagify is a plugin developed by the well-known WP Rocket plugin team.
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer
- WP Smush
- reSmush.it
Utilizing any of these WordPress image optimization plugin will help you accelerate your website.
Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization
If you're not saving images optimized for web, then you should start doing it immediately. It'll make a massive difference on your site speed as well as your customers will thank you for it.
Not to mention, faster websites are excellent for SEO, and you will likely see an increase in your ranking on search engines.
make use of this tool convert to png
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