JPG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF
JPG is for photos (lossy, tiny), PNG for graphics with sharp edges/transparency (lossless, bigger), WebP for both at ~25–35% less weight, AVIF for even smaller files where supported.
Format choice is the biggest lever on page weight: serving a photo as PNG can cost 5–10× the bytes of a well-tuned WebP with no visible difference.
Mistakes: saving screenshots as JPG (smudged text), using PNG for photos, exporting AVIF without a WebP/JPG fallback for older browsers, and re-compressing a JPG many times (generation loss).
Example: a 2.4 MB JPG photo → WebP q80 ≈ 700 KB → AVIF ≈ 450 KB. Same pixels on screen, one-fifth the download.
Try: JPG → WebP · JPG/PNG → AVIF
How to get any image under 100 KB
Getting under 100 KB is a sequence: resize to display size first (a 4000px photo shown at 800px wastes 25× pixels), then lower quality gradually, then switch format.
Order matters because resizing removes pixels while quality removes detail per pixel — doing quality first throws away detail you then downscale anyway.
Mistakes: compressing the only copy (keep the original), judging quality zoomed at 200% (judge at display size), and forgetting that transparency forces PNG/WebP.
Example: 4032×3024 JPG 4 MB → resize to 1200px → WebP q75 ≈ 95 KB. Three steps, same on-screen photo.
Try: Image Compressor · Batch Compression
EXIF and privacy before you share
Phone photos carry EXIF: GPS coordinates, date, device model, sometimes a thumbnail of the original crop. Upload that 'anonymous' photo and you may publish your home address.
Check before you share: open the metadata viewer, confirm what travels with the file, and strip EXIF for anything public — marketplaces, dating apps, whistleblowing, kids' photos.
Mistakes: trusting 'screenshot it' (screenshots keep less but not zero metadata), forgetting the embedded thumbnail survives cropping, and assuming 'delete location' in one app covers all tags.
Example: a living-room photo contained 40.7128° N, 74.0060° W — a home address to 10 meters. Strip first, share after.
Try: Metadata Viewer · Metadata Remover
Target file sizes on demand
Instead of guessing a quality number, name the size you need: the compressor binary-searches JPEG/WebP quality until the file lands on your target (within about 8%), up to 7 tries, all on-device.
It matters for upload limits, attachments, and CMS caps: under 100 KB becomes one input instead of an afternoon of trial and error.
Mistakes: absurd targets for detailed photos (a 50 KB sunset will show it), PNG when you need small (lossless cannot hit targets — pick JPEG/WebP), and compressing the only copy.
Example: a 117 KB photo → 50 KB target → 51.2 KB @q25. Same pixels on screen, inside the limit.
Try: Image Compressor · Batch Compression
EXIF: stripped by design
Every export here is re-encoded pixel by pixel — EXIF (GPS, device, timestamps) never survives the trip. That is privacy by design, not a side effect.
It matters before sharing: listings, profiles, kids photos, and client work all travel clean with zero extra steps.
Mistakes: assuming Save As elsewhere strips everything (many editors keep EXIF by default), trusting screenshots to be clean (less metadata, not zero), and re-uploading originals after cleaning copies.
Example: a phone photo with GPS → converted WebP → the metadata viewer shows dimensions only. Home address gone.
Try: Metadata Viewer · Image Compressor