16 Best Image Compression Software [2023 Guide]

What is the best free image compressor? Find out now

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Key notes

  • Finding the best image compression software isn't like looking for a needle in a haystack.
  • That's because you can find tons of photo compression software on the market.
  • And most tools don't even require much knowledge on how to compress an image on Windows 10.
image compression tools

We store images on our hard drives and online, but in order to save space, we sometimes need to make them occupy less. What can be better than using dedicated image compression software to shrink down photos without compromising on quality?

If you’re uploading your images online and if you have limited online storage, image compression is even more important. We reckon there is no shortage of tools that promise to do just that.

Nevertheless, the compression technique implies a certain degree of loss when it comes to clarity. So, we only focus on resizer programs that will not affect quality.

Here’s a quick preview of our favorite picks:

  • 🏅 Adobe Photoshop – Best image compression software without losing quality
  • 📌 WinZip – Excellent choice for reducing email attachments
  • 👉 Pixillion – Top-notch JPEG compression software
  • NX Power Lite Desktop – Easily adjust the ratio between quality & compression
  • FILEminimizer – Scan specific folders or the entire hard drive
  • Caesium Image Compressor – Best picture compression software free download
  • JPEGmini – Lossless compression software

Compressing your images is fairly simple, and today we’re going to show you some of the best image compressor software options. You can use them on Windows 10, Windows 11, and prior versions.

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Best picture compression software for PC

Adobe Photoshop – Best image compression software

If you want the very best photo compression software, Adobe Photoshop is well suited for the job. The world’s greatest imaging and graphic design software lets you crop, retouch, combine, and compress photos with ease.

Photoshop is professional and gives new dimensions to the art of photography. So, you may only imagine how well it covers basics such as image compression.

One of its most interesting features is that you may work with unlimited layers and masks. Moreover, chances are you’ll love its slick interface.

You can choose from several workspace layouts or feel free to create your own custom layout of panels and windows.

The bottom line, it shouldn’t take too long to get used to Adobe Photoshop. Even if you’re a newbie, once you understand how the application works, it’s so much fun to use.

Other key features include:

  • A rich set of tools for professional mobile and web design
  • Various effects can be easily applied to layers
  • 3D design capability to make your work stand out
  • Fast Edit features that are essential for professional work
  • It’s extremely versatile, so it works with other Adobe apps like Illustrator and InDesign

Adobe Photoshop

If you’re looking for the best photo compression software for Windows 10, then try out Adobe Photoshop!
Free trial Visit website

WinZip – Excellent for reducing email files

get WinZip

We’ve compiled a list of the best compression software tools for Windows 10, so WinZip clearly deserves a spot here.

Since Zip files reduce email attachment size, do not hesitate to give them a try. Moreover, do note that it provides splitting of files according to the media and advanced file-sharing options.

WinZip also comes with a highly responsive interface for all devices you may own, so you won’t encounter any issues while using it.

Great key features brought by WinZip to the table:

  • It protects files with strong banking-level encryption
  • cloud support is a bonus that you’ll most likely find useful
  • Integration with Microsoft Office
  • Instant sharing
  • Image format converter

WinZip

If you want great image compression software, this is clearly a reliable choice!
Check price Visit website

Pixillion – Top-notch JPEG compression

try out Pixillion

Another comprehensive photo compression software for Windows 10 we want to cover is Pixillion.

Use this tool to convert to a variety of target formats, including JPEG, JPG, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO, SVG, TGA, TIF, PGF, RAW, RAF, WMF, EMF, DNG, CR2, and many more.

You may actually convert or compress thousands of photos at a time with batch conversion and get them ready for posting on the web or displaying on your smartphone, without loss of quality and detail.

Besides the one-click process of converting files, Pixillion allows you to easily add text captions or different kinds of watermarks to your images.

Furthermore, you have the option to resize them until they’re perfect. That’s why this professional tool is the one-stop solution for all your image editing and image conversion requirements. Give it a try!

Pixillion

Pixillion helps you compress thousands of photos at a time and there is no format it cannot handle.
Check price Visit website

NXPower Lite Desktop – Quality & Compression adjustment

get NX Power Lite Desktop

NXPowerLite Desktop 8 shrinks your JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JPG, and other popular image formats but also your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents.

Files remain in their original format and there is no need to unzip them before using them. It also allows you to customize the balance between quality and compression ratio, which is a very useful feature for images.

It’s a user-friendly tool: just select the file you need to minimize, choose a compression level, and click the Optimize button.

You can also optimize file size from within Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office programs, or choose to automatically optimize email attachments as they are sent.

You can use NXPowerLite Desktop for free but if you need to have access to more sophisticated features to accomplish your work – you can buy the full version.

Get NXPower Lite Desktop

FILEminimizer – Specific folders or hard drive scan

get FILEminimizer

FILEminimizer Pictures is a simple free application and image compressor for Windows. The first thing that you’ll notice when you start this application is its simple and a bit outdated interface.

In order to compress your images, you just need to find them and add them to the application.

There’s a useful feature available that will scan certain folders, or even an entire hard drive and allow you to add pictures to the FILEminimizer Pictures tool.

Regarding the configuration, you can choose between three presets or you can set the custom level of compression. You can also choose an output directory or add suffixes or prefixes to compressed images.

This is a simple tool for image compression, and its biggest flaw is an outdated user interface. Speaking of the user interface, there’s no preview window, so you won’t see any changes until you compress your images.

FILEminimizer Pictures is a simple tool, and if its outdated user interface isn’t a problem for you, be sure to try it out.

⇒  Get FILEminimizer Premium Version

Caesium Image Compressor – Free photo compression tool

get Caesium Image Compressor

Caesium Image Compressor is an open-source image compressor. In order to compress your images, you simply need to add them to the application and set the desired options.

If you want, you can also add entire folders directly to Caesium Image Compressor. The user interface is split into three columns.

The first column is Compression Options and from there you can set the image quality. You can also choose between several formats such as JPG, PNG, and BMP.

Unfortunately, you can’t change image quality for PNG or BMP images. If you want, you can use the same quality for all images on your list.

The next column is in charge of resizing. From there you can set an absolute or relatively new size for your images.

If you want, you can also apply the same settings for all images on the list. Of course, there’s an option available that will let you keep your aspect ratio.

The last column is in charge of the output folder. You can set a different output folder for your compressed images or keep them in the same folder.

If you want, you can also add a suffix to your images so you can easily distinguish them.

Even though this is a simple application, it has its share of flaws. In order to see a new size, compression ratio, and quality of the image, you’ll have to check the list of files.

We have to mention that the list can be sometimes sluggish, so it can take about five or more seconds for data to update. You can force data to update by clicking the Set Quality button if you don’t want to wait.

Even though there’s a side-by-side comparison, the compressed image preview won’t update automatically unless you click the Preview button, which is also a flaw in our opinion.

Caesium Image Compressor is a great application for image compression. This tool is simple to use and it has all the basic options available.

Unfortunately, some users might be turned away by some of its minor flaws. We have to mention that a portable version is also available, so you can run this app without installing it on your PC.

Get Caesium Image Compressor

JPEGmini – Lossless compression software

get JPEGmini

JPEGmini is a lossless image compressor, and according to its developers, this tool can reduce the file size of your pictures up to 5 times.

All your pictures will keep their original format and they will suffer almost no quality loss during compression.

We have to mention that this tool is rather simple, and all that you have to do is to add your images to it, and it will automatically compress them.

Keep in mind that by default JPEGmini overwrites the original images with compressed ones, so be sure to change your settings first.

Speaking of settings, we have to say that JPEGmini offers few settings. There’s no quality slider, so you’ll have to rely on the application algorithm to figure out the best quality settings for your images.

The application does a good job, so you’ll hardly notice any visual changes after compressing your images. In addition to compression, you can resize the images or set a specific output folder for compressed images.

JPEGmini is a simple application that allows you to resize your JPEG images without any configuration. This application will be perfect for primary users, especially with its visually appealing and simple user interface.

If you want more advanced options, you’ll have to use a different application. We also have to mention that JPEGmini is available as a free trial.

The free version allows you to compress up to 20 images per day, which should be enough for basic users.

Get JPEGmini

FileOptimizer – Nifty photo compressor app

get FileOptimizer

FileOptimizer is another free tool that can optimize your images. This application was originally designed for compressing all sorts of files, but you can also use it to compress your images.

FileOptimizer comes with a humble user interface, and in order to optimize your images, you just need to add them to the tool. Regarding compression, you can choose between several compression levels.

We have to warn you that by default this application moves original files to Recycle Bin and replaces them with compressed files. Of course, you can turn this option off if you want.

There’s no preview window or any advanced settings, which can be a flaw for some users. During the compression process, you’ll see the original size and optimized size of each file, which is rather useful.

This tool isn’t optimized for image compression, but if you want to compress your images and other files, this tool can be useful.

This application is available in a portable format, so you can run it on your PC without installing it.

Get FileOptimizer

Mass Image Compressor – Preview & file size information

get Mass Image Compressor

Mass Image Compressor is another free image compression software. Unlike other tools on our list, this one is designed to compress entire image folders.

In fact, you can’t add single images to this app, so you’ll have to organize images that you want to compress.

After selecting the desired folder, you should be able to change options such as image quality and image size.

You can choose between fixed width or set a percent-based width for your images. In addition to changing quality and size, you can also change the image format to JPEG or PNG or keep the same file format.

You can also save compressed images to a specific directory, or you can overwrite the original images. Mass Image Compressor comes with a preview window that lets you see a sample image.

This is a useful feature, but unfortunately, there’s no way to toggle between different images, which is a flaw in our opinion. In addition to the image preview, there’s also information regarding the file size next to it.

This is a simple application for image compression, but unfortunately, this tool isn’t designed for single images.

You can’t add individual images to the application, and you can’t see previews or compression results for individual images which can be a problem for some users.

Overall, if you have multiple photos that you want to compress, this tool will be perfect for it.

Get Mass Image Compressor

PNGGauntlet – PNG-focused photo compressor

get PNGGauntlet

PNGGauntlet is an image compression software optimized for PNG files. The application allows you to convert other file formats such as JPG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP to PNG.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to save images to JPG or any other format except PNG. This tool uses PNGOUT, OptiPNG, and DelfOpt to compress your images, and you can configure each of them individually.

Just like with many other tools on our list, you can choose an output directory or overwrite original files. Unfortunately, there’s no preview window available, which is another flaw in this application.

PNGGauntlet is a great application if you want to optimize PNG files, but if you have your images stored in any other file format, we suggest that you try a different app.

Get PNGGauntlet

RIOT – Color quantization & encoding

get RIOT

RIOT stands for Radical Image Optimizer, and this is another free image compression tool. This tool is lightweight, but it offers advanced features, so it can be used by both basic and advanced users alike.

Regarding file support, this tool allows you to optimize JPEG, GIF, and PNG images. The tool comes with two panes that will show you the original and optimized image.

RIOT comes with an in-place compare feature that will temporarily replace the original image in the preview pane with the compressed one so you can examine the changes in a single pane.

The tool allows you to change the image quality of JPEG images, but it also allows you to choose different encoding options.

If you want, you can also perform image adjustments and change brightness, contrast, gamma, and other settings.

You can also rotate or flip your image if you need to. There’s a resample option available, and you can use it to resize the image using 6 different resampling filters.

During resampling, you can set the desired width or height in pixels or percents and choose to keep the aspect ratio if you want.

Regarding PNG images, you can change the color reduction profile or choose the number of colors manually. In addition, you can change the compression, and color quantization, or use external optimizers.

As for GIF images, you can choose color reduction presets or reduce the number of colors manually. You can also add images to RIOT directly from the clipboard, which is useful.

RIOT also comes with a useful option that lets you compress the image to the desired size in KB. There’s also support for batch optimization, so you can quickly edit and compress multiple images at the same time.

One thing that we don’t like about batch optimization is the lack of ability to set the desired quality. There’s also no preview window for batch optimization, which can be a problem for some users.

Despite those minor flaws, this is still one of the best image compression tools on our list.

Get RIOT

JPEG Compressor – Detail quality equalizer

get JPEG Compressor

JPEG Compressor is probably the most advanced image compression software on our list. This application comes with a cluttered user interface that might confuse basic users.

If you want to quickly compress an image, simply choose one of the presets on the left. You can choose between original, lossless, and other compression modes.

The app allows you to customize compression in great detail, and you can change Luma and Chroma compression values.

There’s also a Detail Quality Equalizer that you can use to fine-tune your image. You can also change values such as Unsharp Masking, Luma Equalizing, and many others.

If you want, you can crop or resize your image but you can also change color balance, saturation, or brightness along with other settings.

You can even set the desired size in KB for your image, and it will be automatically optimized.

JPEG Compressor allows you to create profiles that you can use to batch edit your images. Batch editing allows you to save compressed images in a specific folder or add prefixes or suffixes to them.

JPEG Compressor is the most advanced image compression tool, and the number of settings that you can change is daunting.

This tool isn’t designed for basic users, but if you want to fine-tune your images and create custom profiles for batch compression, this is the perfect tool for you.

We have to mention that this tool isn’t free, but you can download it and try it free of charge.

Get JPEG Compressor

PhotoRazor – Prefixes for saving specific images

get PhotoRazor

PhotoRazor is another simple image compression software. This tool comes with a simple design and features, therefore it’s perfect for basic users.

To use this tool, simply select the folder with images that you want to compress. After doing that, you need to select the desired size and image quality.

We have to mention that PhotoRazor has limited options when it comes to image compression and resizing, but those options will be enough for basic users.

It’s worth mentioning that you can preview each image individually and see how compression will affect it. In addition to the preview, you can also see the estimated file size.

All your images are saved in a dedicated folder, and you can even add prefixes to compressed images. You can also select which images you want to compress, so you’re not forced to compress an entire image folder.

PhotoRazor is a simple tool with simple features, and if you’re a basic user, this tool will be perfect for all your needs.

Get PhotoRazor

Jpeg Resampler – Precise width & height

get Jpeg Resampler

Jpeg Resampler is an advanced image compression tool. This tool comes with a humble user interface, but it makes up for it with its features.

Before you can use this tool, you need to select the source file or directory and desired output directory. This tool allows you to make many adjustments to your pictures.

For example, you can compress the image and convert it to a different format right from Jpeg Resampler 2010. Of course, you can resample the picture to a specific size in KB.

If you want, you can resize the picture by using pixels or percent values. You can even set the size of the larger side or the exact width or height.

You can choose between several resampling filters and you can add various effects. If you wish, you can even change the color format or save your presets for later use.

Of course, you can change the image quality and all sorts of advanced options. You can even set custom names for compressed images.

You can also see all your images along with the necessary information, but you can’t see how will your image look after compression.

In addition, there’s no estimated file size available before the compression. Jpeg Resampler offers many great features, but it has some user interface flaws.

If you don’t mind the lack of image and size preview, this app could be useful to you.

Get Jpeg Resampler

FastStone Photo Resizer – Joggle with different formats

get FastStone Photo Resizer

FastStone Photo Resizer is a free tool for image compression. After you select the desired images, you can choose between several different formats. If you want, you can also set a different output folder.

This tool allows you to change all sorts of options regarding image quality, but you can also change other settings. You can crop images, resize them, and make all sorts of adjustments.

You can even set custom names for all your compressed images. If you want, you can even save your presets and use them later.

Before compressing your images you can also preview them and see how will compression affects them. In addition to the individual image preview, you can see the estimated size as well.

FastStone Photo Resizer is an amazing tool, and it offers all features that both basic and advanced users need.

The only flaw of this tool might be its complexity, so it might take you a few tries to get the desired results. This might not be the simplest tool on our list, but it’s definitely one of the best.

Get FastStone Photo Resizer

Light Image Resizer – Custom images destinations

get Light Image Resizer

Light Image Resizer is available as a free trial, and this image compression software will allow you to compress up to 100 images in the free version.

The application comes with a simple interface and you just have to add your images or image directories and set the desired preset.

You can also set custom to resize options, different actions, and custom destinations for compressed images. Regarding advanced options, you can adjust the image quality or set a specific size for your images.

Changing image format and filter is extremely easy with this tool. If you want, you can also set custom names for compressed images. If needed, you can also make adjustments and add certain effects to your images.

After you set the desired parameters, you can preview your images. You can preview individual images and see how the compression will affect them.

Of course, you can also see the estimated file size of each image before you compress it.

Light Image Resizer is a simple yet powerful tool that has all the necessary options for image compression. This is a great tool, but unfortunately, it’s not available for free, so you’ll have to obtain a license.

Get Light Image Resizer

If you’re looking for powerful and free image compression software, our recommendation is FastStone Photo Resizer.

This software has all the advanced features, and it’s also free, but it might take you a bit to get used to it. If you want something more user-friendly but just as powerful, we suggest that you try the RIOT tool.

More about the topics: file compression, photo software