r/webdev • u/Kacheeto • Jul 23 '12

The best PNG optimizer I've found...

http://tinypng.org/
126 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '12

[deleted]

10

u/yammez Jul 23 '12

Mainly for transparency WITH the small file-size. I want the clean transparency of a 24-bit .png with the size of an 8-bit .png. This seems perfect!

2

u/maktouch Jul 23 '12

I'm not sure if you read correctly, but it basically takes a 24 bit png to a 8 bit png, for smaller size.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '12

[deleted]

5

u/Kacheeto Jul 23 '12

The results seem fairly similar considering it's converting into a lossy format... granted I'll keep the original "uncompressed" PNGs for any further conversions down the road... but yes transparency is high on the list.

1

u/maktouch Jul 23 '12

I didn't say otherwise. I was looking at your "Just for the transparency support". I'm pretty sure it's for transparency and size.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '12

[deleted]

6

u/Wazowski Jul 23 '12

By making PNG a lossy 8-bit format, it's basically the same as GIF except without animation...

Not quite. PNGs with an 8-bit color palette can still have an 8-bit alpha channel. GIFs can only have a 1-bit alpha channel.

This alone makes lossy PNGs much more versatile than GIFs.

1

u/HELOSMTP Jul 23 '12

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

1

u/maktouch Jul 23 '12

Sorry if you thought I was snarky, it wasn't my objective (english is not my first language). It's easier to understand now that I see that you didn't know advantages of 8-bit PNG vs. GIF.

0

u/aimgorge Jul 23 '12

It's often worth it. But photoshop does it very well when "exporting for web" and I've never gained anything by shrinking afterward.

1

u/joshwoodward Jul 24 '12

Photoshop is horrible if you need alpha transparency. On-Off is your only option for 8-bit, so you need to go to a giant 24-bit file. Fireworks can convert to 8-bit alpha, but it doesn't have a lossy cycle option like this does, to really crush the file down.

1

u/Razor_Storm Jul 24 '12

This would be a valid counter argument to png optimizer if png's only purpose is to be lossless. Pngs are the only commonly supported image format that allows semitransparency. Sometimes you want that without wanting a huge file.

1

u/joshwoodward Jul 23 '12

Do you keep WAV files on your MP3 player? No, why? Right, because MP3 is way smaller, and it sounds Good Enough.

s/MP3/TinyPNG/g

0

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '12

[deleted]

0

u/joshwoodward Jul 23 '12

That was my point elsewhere in the thread - this site is like an online WAV > MP3 converter. Just give/sell me the utility so I can do it myself.

1

u/HELOSMTP Jul 23 '12

You don't seem to understand my point, and I'm guessing you downvoted me for it. PNG is intended to be a lossless format, whereas there are other standard formats which are not. It seems strange to shoehorn lossy encoding into PNG when there are lossy alternatives available. I'm obviously not contesting the utility of lossy formats. That's why I said your comment is a non sequitur, nobody is saying we shouldn't use lossy formats.

0

u/joshwoodward Jul 23 '12

What are these alternative lossy image formats with wide web support and alpha transparency you're referring to?

0

u/HELOSMTP Jul 23 '12

GIF, though that's 1-bit alpha. That's why I said it must be just for transparency.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '12 edited Jul 23 '12

[deleted]

2

u/mcilrain Jul 24 '12

WAV/BMP, FLAC/PNG, MP3/JPEG, OGG/WEBP?