Compress an image
Reduce the file size of a photo or screenshot. Pick a quality and an output format, compare the result against the original, and download it when the trade looks right.
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Converted in your browser. A copy of the file you select is also uploaded and stored, so it can be investigated if a problem or a report of misuse ever requires that — see our privacy page for how long it is kept.
How much smaller can an image get?
It depends almost entirely on what is in the picture. A photograph compresses enormously — a phone photo that arrives at four megabytes will often sit happily at three hundred kilobytes with no difference you can see at normal size. A screenshot of text compresses far less, because sharp edges are exactly what lossy compression is worst at, and pushing the quality down on one produces visible fringing around the letters long before the file gets usefully small.
Choosing a quality
Somewhere around 80 percent is the usual sweet spot for photographs. Below about 60 you start to see blocking in flat areas like skies. Above 90 the file grows quickly for a difference almost nobody notices. The preview here shows both the old and the new size, so the honest way to use it is to move the slider until the picture still looks right and take whatever saving that gives you.
When compressing is the wrong fix
If an image is too large because its dimensions are enormous — a 6000-pixel-wide photo being displayed in a 900-pixel column — then compression is treating the symptom. Resizing it first will cut the file far more than any quality setting, and the result will look better too.
Questions
Is my image uploaded?
The compression itself happens in your own browser — that part is genuinely local, and it is why this works instantly with no account. Separately, a copy of the image you select is also uploaded and stored, the same way any file sent to Scriptorium is, so that we can investigate a problem or a report of misuse if one ever comes up. See our privacy page for how long that copy is kept.
Which format should I choose?
WebP is usually the smallest for the same visible quality, and every current browser reads it. Choose JPEG if the file has to open in older software. PNG is lossless, so the quality slider does nothing for it — use PNG only when you need exact pixels or transparency.
Why is my PNG barely smaller?
PNG compression is lossless, so there is a floor it cannot go below. If the image is a photograph rather than a screenshot or a diagram, converting it to JPEG or WebP will usually be far smaller at a quality you cannot tell apart.
Turn what is said into text
Scriptorium's main job is transcription: bring a video or an audio file and get back text you can read, correct, search and export.