How to Compress Photos to Reduce A Loading Time on Your Website

Photos that are a large size will take a longer time to load. Even this photo will take up space in your storage. One solution to still get quality images while maintaining a small size is to compress photos. To be successful in this activity, follow the steps below to compress photos.

What is Photo Compression?

Photo compression is a process designed to reduce the file size of photographs, allowing the resulting images to consume less RAM on your computer. It’s not too complicated, and it’s a smart way to save computer memory.

So, why do you need to compress images? There are no reasons. However, the most common cause is that it is considered a good practice to use compressed photos on your website, especially when optimizing for mobile web. Compressing photos before sending them through email can also save you time, especially if your email server has a file size limit.

Outside of industry best practices, compress photos can free up a significant amount of space on your hard disk, which can be used to store other files.

How Compress Photos Works

There are two methods to compress photos: Lossless and Lossy. For those of you who are new to the image editing world, those words might mean nothing to you. Let us discuss both methods to see what they mean.

Lossless Compression

Lossless compression is a method that compresses images while preserving their quality. To understand this, you need to understand the many types of images first.

If you ever take a picture with a DSLR camera or any digital camera, you might have noticed that you save your image as a RAW or JPEG file. RAW, as the name suggests, has no compression, resulting in a bigger image size. JPEG, on the other hand, is a compressed photo file that uses less space than a RAW file. However, the image’s quality will not be as crisp as the RAW file.

In addition to RAW, there are other lossless image file types, such as PNG and BMP.

Lossy Compression

Compared to Lossless compression, the Lossy compression method saves more space. How does it work? Lossy compression works by removing parts of an image during the compression process.

It does not mean your photo will look bad. However, suppose you repeat the process several times, such as cropping or editing your JPEG images. In that case, the quality of your photo image will drop rapidly.

How to Compress Photos with Ease

The following are some methods for producing high-quality images with a manageable file size by compressing photos. Let’s get started.

1. With the Help of the Online Compress Photos Tool

One of the most effective ways to reduce photo size is to utilize online photo compression tools. Numerous online compress photos application are available for use. The method is relatively straightforward:

• Access and open the website of your choice.
• Upload a photo or drag it into the compression box to reduce its size. Pay attention to the maximum size of the image allowed.
• Wait a moment, and you can compare the quality of the photo before and after compression by clicking the eye logo in the corner of the image.
• Download compressed images online.

This method is ideal for those who need to quickly access pictures and photos without having to install software or applications on their smartphone or PC first.

2. Changing Photo Format to Reduce Photo Size

One of the simplest ways to compress photos is to change the file format. You will see the change in the size of your image files immediately. One of the most common image file formats used is JPG/JPEG and PNG.

The JPG format has a smaller file size compared to the PNG format because it supports a limited color palette. In contrast, PNG supports an unlimited number of colors.

Here’s a way to convert a photo from PNG to PNG format:

• Download and install the Photoscape software.
• Open a photo with Photoscape and select the Editor menu.
• After that, select the Editor menu and Save As with the Ctrl + Shift + S key combination on the keyboard.
• If the save box comes out, then choose Save as type at the bottom of the photo name to JPEG format (* .jpg * jpeg).

If you want to upload your photos to a website or online, consider using the WEBP photo format, as it has a significantly smaller size compared to the two photo formats mentioned above.

How to Change Photo Format JPG / PNG to WEBP:

• Download and install WebPconv software.
• Open WebPconv, and it will automatically open to Encode mode.
• Select and add photos using the Plus icon or drag and drop them directly by clicking on the image you want to convert to JPG or PNG format.
• If the photo has been entered into the software, then start the process of changing the photo format by selecting the Play button.
• After the encoding process is complete, your photo files will be saved to the Desktop in the web_encode folder.

3. Reducing the Color Depth of Photos

One of the factors contributing to the photo file size being too large is the use of color. Color depth is a crucial factor in determining the sharpness of a photo. Each photo format has a different file size. For example, JPG photo files have a smaller file size compared to PNG because they can use a limited number of colors. Confused about how to reduce the color depth of a photo? Follow the steps to reduce the photo file size below:

• Open Photoshop and open the photo file that you want to resize.
• After that, select the menu Image> Mode> Indexed Color and 8 Bits / Channel. Why Indexed Color? Because this color depth has a smaller photo file size compared to RGB Color.
• After that, save your photo as a comparison to the file size of the image before and after it has been compressed in this way.

Read also: Changing the Color of an Image in Illustrator.

4. Shrink Photo Size By Cropping Photos

Another way to reduce the size of a photo file without compromising its quality is to crop or cut out unnecessary parts. There are many ways to crop pictures, for example, using Adobe Photoshop, Photoscape, and Paint (the default Windows application). Here’s how to crop photos using Adobe Photoshop:

• Open the Photoshop application
• Open your photo file
• Next, select the Crop tool and choose the part you want to crop.
• After that, decide which part will be cropped.
• Select the check mark.
• After cropping, don’t forget to save your photo as a new file.

Those are the steps on how to compress photos that you can follow. By following these steps, you can reduce the file size for your product image. But, if you don’t have enough time for this, or it’s just too hard for you, try professional product image editing services, Dropicts. We are ready to help you fix your photos. For more information, please visit our website. If you have any questions about this, don’t be shy to leave a comment!

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