Image Optimizer

compress-image

How to Optimize Imagesfor web performance, without sacrificing Quality

Did you think about optimizing your images prior to uploading to WordPress can have a major effect on your website's speed?

When making a blog for the first time, lots of novices simply upload photos without optimizing them for the web. The large images make your website slower.

This can be fixed by applying the image optimizationbest methods as part of your routine blog routine.

With this article In this article, we'll show you how to optimize your images for faster internet performance without losing quality. We will also share automatic imaging optimization extensions for WordPress that will make your life easier.

Because this is a complete guide to image optimization for web and mobile, we've developed an easy-to-follow table of contents:

• What's an image optimization? (optimized image vs. unoptimized)
• Why is image optimization crucial? What are the benefits?
• How can you save and optimize images to improve web performance?
• Top image optimization tools and programs
• Best Images 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 dimensions without diminishing the overall quality of the image.

Although the procedure sounds complicated but it's actually fairly simple nowadays. You can utilize one of the many image optimization tools and plugins to automate the compression of images by more than 80% and without any visible diminution in quality.

Here's an example for optimizing as compared to unoptimized.

You can observe, if optimized correctly, the image could be 75% smaller than the original without any quality loss.

What is Image Optimization work?

In simple words simply put, image optimization is achieved by using compression techniques like "Lossy" and "Lossless" that help reduce the overall size of files without causing any reduction in quality.

What is it to Optimize Images?

If you've ever been given an order to optimize your photos through your WordPress hosting team or an automated speed test tool the only thing it suggests is that you must 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?

While there are many benefits of optimizing images, these are the top benefits you need to know:

• Faster speed of website
• Enhanced SEO rankings
• The higher conversion rate overall for leads and sales
• A smaller amount of storage and bandwidth (which can cut hosting and CDN cost)
• Faster backups of websites (also lowers the cost of backup storage)

In addition to video, images are the next most weighty element on a page. In accordance with HTTP Archive, pictures account for approximately 21% of the weight of a page's total.

Because we are aware that websites that are speedy rank higher on search engines (SEO) and also have higher conversions images optimization is something each business website has to take care of in order to grow online.

You might be thinking what impact does image optimization can really impact?

According to a Strangeloop study, one-second delay in the loading of websites will cost you 7% of sales, 11% less views, and a 16% less satisfaction from customers.

If none of these reasons are enough to speed up your website, then you should know that search engines like Google provide preferential SEO treatment to websites that load faster.

That means that by optimizing your images for the web 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 most important factor in success in image optimization on the web is to find the best equilibrium between the lowest file size and acceptable quality images.

The three things that play a crucial importance in 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 selecting the most suitable combination of the three you could reduce your image's size up to 80 percent.

Let's look at each of them in more details.

1. Image File Format

For most webmasters, the only three images formats that really require attention include JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Picking the right type of file is crucial to image optimization.

To make things easy For simplicity, it is recommended to use JPEGs in the case of images or photographs with a variety of colors, PNGs for simple images or for transparent images. You can also use GIF to only use animated images.

For those that don't know what the distinction is between each type, the format of PNG images is uncompressed . This means it's an image of higher quality. image. The downside is that PNG file dimensions are larger.

However, JPEG is a compressed format, which reduces image quality to provide a significantly smaller size file.

However, GIF has 256 colors, GIF uses only 256 and lossless compression. This makes it the best option with regard to animation images.

On WPBeginner We use three different image formats based on the kind of image.

2. Compression

The other thing is image compression that plays an essential role within image optimization.

There are different kinds and levels of image compression that are available. These settings will differ based on the image compression tool you employ.

Many image editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and many others have built-in features to compress images.

You are also able to save images using a web tool like TinyPNG , or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Though it's a little manual however, these two methods let the compression of images prior to uploading images to WordPress This is the process we employ on WPBeginner.

There are many well-known WordPress plugins like Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer, and others that can automatically compress images once they are uploaded for the first time. Many newbies, and even larger companies prefer using these images optimization plugins due to the fact that it is simple to use and is convenient.

We'll talk more about these WordPress plugins in the following article.

3. Image Dimensions

Normally when you download a photograph from your phone or digital camera, the image has an extremely high resolution and large file dimensions (height and wide).

Typically, these photos have typically a resolution of around 300 DPI with dimensions starting from 2000 pixels and up. High-quality images are ideal for desktop or print printing. These images are not appropriate for use on websites.

Sizing down the dimensions of files to something more manageable can significantly reduce the size of the file. You can simply resize images by using the software for editing images on your computer.

We optimized, for instance, our photo to 1.8 Megabytes in size as the original file size with a 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

We opted for the Jpeg format to allow better compression. We also altered the dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. Additionally, it decreased the image file size to 103 KB. That's 94% less than the original file size.

After you have a better understanding of the three key elements in image optimization now let's have a review the different images optimization tools available to website owners.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

We mentioned it earlier that the majority of image editing software comes complete with images optimization or compression setting.

In addition to the image editing software, there are a variety of powerful and affordable image optimization tools that you can apply to optimize images for web usage (with just the click of a button).

We recommend making use of these tools for optimizing images before you upload them to WordPress particularly if you are a perfectionist.

This approach helps you conserve storage space in your WordPress hosting account, and will guarantee the fastest image with the finest quality because you manually scrutinize every image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software equipped with a feature for saving images that are optimized for the web. Simply open your image and click on"File > Save to Web" "File >> Save for Web" option.

The new dialog box. On the rightside, you will be able to set various image formats. In the case of JPEG format, you'll be presented with a variety options regarding quality. When you select the quality option the program will indicate the file's dimensions in the lower left.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop. It can be used to enhance your photos for online use. Its disadvantage is that it's not as straightforward to implement as other options listed on this list.

First, you need to open your image within GIMP then click on the File > Export as option. It will open the save file dialog box. Create a new name and then hit an export option.

Then, you will be presented with image export options. When you export JPEGs, you can choose the compression setting to reduce file size. Finally, click on"Export", to store the optimal image.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a free online application that utilizes a lossy compression technique that can reduce their size PNG files. All you have to do is visit their site and upload your pictures (simple drag and drop).

They compress the image and give you the download link. You can also use their sister websitecalled TinyJPG in order to get JPEG image compression.

There is also extensions for Adobe Photoshop which we employ as part of our image editing workflow because it combines the best qualities of TinyJPG and tinyPNG inside Photoshop.

For developers, they offer an API for converting images on the fly, and for novices, they offer the WordPress plugin that will automatically perform the conversion for you (more on this in the future).

JPEG Mini

JPEGmini uses a lossless compression technology that reduces the size of pictures without impacting their visual quality. You may also assess the quality of the original image and the compressed image.

The web version for no cost or buy the software to run on your personal computer. There is also a paid API that can automate the process for your server.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac application that allows you to reduce images, without losing any quality, by locating the best compression parameters and remove unnecessary color profiles.

Windows option to do this would be Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

Our opinion is that the best way to improve the quality of your images is by doing it before uploading them to WordPress. However, if you run a multi-author website or need an automated solution, then you could consider using an WordPress image compression plugin.

Here is our list of the top WordPress photo compression plug-ins.

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

Utilizing one ones of them WordPress image optimization plugins will help speed up your website.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you aren't saving images that are optimized for the web, it's time to do this right immediately. It'll make a significant difference in your site's speed and your visitors will thank you for it.

Additionally, faster websites are excellent for SEO and you'll likely experience an increase in the search engine results.

Use this tool to convert to png